ABSTRACT
Of the former group a handful became certified drawing teachers and some also distinguished themselves as painters. Among noblewomen only the most energetic went beyond cultivating art as a social grace, such as Princess Marya Volkonskaya, who organised a small drawing circle where she and her friends painted saints and church ornament under the tutelage of the academician Fyodor Solntsev. On the other hand, throughout the 19th century those with administrative abilities could use them in the capacity of president or honorary patron of cultural organisations, as did Grand Duchess Marya Nikolayevna, who was president of both the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts, and Countess Praskovya Uvarova, who succeeded her husband as president of the Moscow Archaeological Society on his death in 1885.
