Evgenija Aleksandrovna Lang

(Russian, 1890-1973)

A View of Old Montmartre

Oil on Canvas

24 x 19½ Inches

Signed Lower Right, 'E. Lang'

 

Also known as Evgenia Lang, Evgenija was born into a family of the intelligentsia, a cousin of the poet Valery Bryusov. Her father, Alexander Lang, was Russian, but his family had ancient Scottish roots. He was a well-known bookseller in Moscow, his bookshop located near Kuznetsky Most.

 

Lang graduated from the St. Petersburg Higher Women's Courses (the Bestuzhev Courses) before studying under the Russian and Soviet painter, Vasily Meshkov, and attending the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (circa 1911). While there, she met and studied with her friend, the artist and poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.

 

After continuing her studies in Germany at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (1922-1924), Lang did not return to post-revolutionary Russia and subsequently moved to France, where she remained for forty years. In Paris, Lang exhibited widely and with success including at the Salon des Tuileries (1939, Silver Medal), the Salon of Decorative Painters (1939), the Salon d'Automne (1937, 1943), the Salon des Independants (1945-1948), the Salon of Modern Art (1946), the Salon of Women Artists (1947, 1948, 1957, 1958), and in the Spring Salon (1947, 1948), the Monaco Biennale (1950, Grand Prix), and the Exhibition of Esoteric Painters (1955).

 

Despite such artistic success and numerous commissions, Lang's life in France was far from easy. She never took French citizenship and held a Nansen passport as a stateless person, which was particularly risky under the Nazi occupation. She was forced to hide, frequently moving from one acquaintance to another.

 

In 1962, Lang visited the Soviet Union as a tourist and sought out Lyudmila Mayakovskaya, the sister of Vladimir Mayakovsky, whom she had known as a student. Mayakovskaya helped Lang with the process of moving back to Moscow where she became a member of the Union of Artists. Lang gave many of her works to Mayakovskaya, which are now in the permanent collection of the Mayakovsky Museum.