Elena Samokysh-Sudkovskaya

Her father was a Russian military engineer of French ancestry and she received her secondary education at the Pauline Institute for Women [ru], a school for young girls of the nobility.

In 1889, she married another painter, Nikolay Samokish, and returned to Russia, where she worked as an illustrator for Niva, the most popular magazine in the Russian Empire at that time.

She became a member of the "First Lady's Artistic Circle" (which existed from 1882 to 1918) and exhibited alongside some of the most prominent painters of that time, including Ivan Shishkin and Ilya Repin.

[2] Her designs for Tsar Nicholas II's Coronation Album received an award of excellence, with a medal and blue ribbon.

Although she painted numerous portraits and genre scenes, she is probably best remembered for her book illustrations; notably the ones for Eugene Onegin by Pushkin, which were done in 1911, and those for The Little Humpbacked Horse by Yershov.