Maud Julia Augusta Russell (née Nelke; 7 November 1891 – 27 May 1982) was a British socialite and art patron, who aided Jewish relatives in their escape from Nazi Germany during the 1930s.

[1] The daughter of Maria and Paul Nelke, German Jewish immigrants, Maud grew up in London in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

From 1943-1945 she worked on secret propaganda activities at the Admiralty"[1] Maud remains one of the foremost English collectors of modern French art,[4] and enjoyed a friendship with artists such as Boris Anrep of whom she was patron[5] and eventually executrix of his will.

[6] Maud was one of the patrons for Boris Anrep's Modern Virtues, a collection of colourful mosaics which decorate the imposing staircase built by Sir John Taylor in 1887 for the entrance hall of the National Gallery, her name and portrait are expressed as the personification of Folly.

[11] Maud and Gilbert bought Mottisfont Abbey in 1934,[12] and remodelled it from a building in ruin to a modern estate with the help of her artist friends.