VALENTINA PETROVA (b.1922) Still life

Valentina Petrova was born in Kanev (Ukraine) in 1922. As a 14 year old she was introduced to Isaak Brodsky, the important Stalinist period artist, who was probably the most famous artist in the USSR at the time, at the art school in Dneprodyrszinsk, Ukraine. Brodsky arranged for her to move to the art school attached to the Repin Academy, where she studied from 1936-40, then graduating to Repin Academy proper from 1940-41. During the siege of Leningrad she was brought into the War Service. In the mid 1940s she married fellow artist Leonid Petrov (b. 1921), and they had a son, Aleksandr, in 1947, who carried on the family tradition and went on to become an artist himself. Following her son's birth, Valentina returned to the Repin Academy to complete her studies, under professors Belkin, Kibric and Loganson, graduating with a Gold Medal. Petrova went on to work in publishing, but continued to paint, exhibitinhh in Russia, Poland and Italy.