Назва музея Адрас
месца, дата
To Whom It May Concern
Not so long ago while visiting the museum, I noticed the paintings by Sophie Fedorovitch, the world-known artist, and scenographer born in Belarus. I was extremely disappointed that the museum shields attribute her as “the Russian” or “the Russian-British artist”. It is not true.
Sophie Fedorovitch, scenographer, artist, and one of the founders of the modern British ballet stage traditions, was born in 1893 in Minsk, in an educated Catholic family of a doctor. The Fedorovich are an ancient Belarusian noble family from the Slutsk region. Sophie was baptized in Minsk Cathedral of the Holy Name of Saint Virgin Mary. And here in Minsk, in the capital of Belarus, the girl spent her childhood.
Sophie Fedorovitch graduated from the girls’ gymnasium in Minsk, where she began to practice art. She studied in Cracow, Moscow, and possibly in St. Petersburg. In 1922, Sophie moved to Paris, where she worked as an artist during the day and as a taxi driver at night, one of Europe’s first female drivers. In 1924, the Polish cabaret magazine Pani published a report entitled The Maid-Artist-Driver dedicated to Sophie Fedorovitch. It wrote: “She was attracted to two things from childhood: painting and technology. It would seem that things are mutually exclusive, but in her soul, they form a strange harmony. She likes moving cars — she likes roaring locomotives, but she wants and needs to draw.”
Paintings by Sophie Fedorovitch from the mid-1920s were full of the futurism spirit. Unfortunately, little of the artist’s work has survived from the pre-war period. Fedorovitch exhibited her paintings at significant art exhibitions in Paris (1922) and Brussels (1928). Theatrical works and paintings (portraits and still lifes) were exhibited at the London Group exhibitions (1921-23, 1925-30, 1932), and at the Beaux-Arts and Leicester galleries in London.
Sophie Fedorovitch also became world-known as a stage costume designer and theatre artist. She was an artist of the first permanent English troupe Ballet Club (from 1934 - Ballet Rambert), thanks to this cooperation she received recognition as one of the founders of the modern British ballet stage traditions.
Around 1930, the artist moved to London, where she received British citizenship in 1940. She lived in her own Gothic-style house in Chelsea until she died in 1953. Many sketches and projects of the famous artist are now kept in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
So taking into account all the facts above we see that Sophie Fedorovitch is a Belarusian artist who was born and grew up in the capital of Belarus, in a Belarusian family. In Minsk, she received a gymnasium education and began to practice art. Her further work was connected with Poland, France, and Great Britain. Certainly, it was in Britain that she gained her greatest fame.
I hope that in some time the works by Sophie Fedorovitch in the museum and many other museums globally will be appropriately identified.
I will be glad to receive an answer to my proposal.
Sincerely yours,
імя, прозвішча