33 Facts About Nina Simonovich-Efimova

Nina Simonovich-Efimova created innovative designs to make her manikins lifelike, promoting her work by publishing books and teaching puppetry theory and design.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova created a series of sketches while working at the First Mobile Hospital during World War II.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova Yakovlevna Simonovich was born on 21 January 1877 in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire, to Adelaida Semyonova and Yakov Mironovich Simonovich.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova's father was a physician who worked in the typhoid wing of the Aleksandrovskaya Hospital and later at the Elizabeth Children's Hospital in Saint Petersburg.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova helped her mother publish the magazine Detskiy sad.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova's mother, denied higher education in her home country, went to Switzerland, where she learned the methods of Friedrich Frobel before returning to Saint Petersburg where she opened the first kindergarten in Russia in 1866.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova's mother's sister, Valentina Serova was Russia's first professional woman composer and her husband, Alexander was a composer.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova's parents helped raise her cousin, Valentin Serov, after his father died and Serov became estranged from his mother, as well as Olga Trubnikova, who would later marry Serov.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova left Tbilisi in 1899 and went to Paris where she studied drawing under Auguste Joseph Delecluse for a year, before returning to Moscow to take private painting courses with Elizaveta Nikolaevna Zvantseva, her cousin Serov, and attend classes at the Stroganov School.

Between 1910 and 1930, Nina Simonovich-Efimova was a member of the Moscow Association of Artists where she exhibited her works.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova became one of the main participants in the revival of the silhouette art at the start of the twentieth century, and gained a reputation for etching.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova presented silhouettes with restrained detail in theatrical performances similar to shadow plays, using blue cellophane to filter the light, unifying various shapes and adding luster to the overall effect.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova's cousin Serov was a constant mentor to both of the Efimovs They shared him as a teacher and followed his exacting standards to gain his somewhat rare approval.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova presented a repeat performance before receiving an invitation to stage the play once more at the Cafe Pittoresque, a well-known cabaret.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova gave several other performances with her husband, at cafes, friends' homes and at the Hermitage Theatre between 1916 and 1918.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova's career turned toward professional puppetry, creating a mobile theater, with the purpose of providing a joyful distraction to the civil war.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova's husband arranged for the theater in the Mamonovski Passage to be dedicated to puppet productions.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova developed glove puppets and shadow puppets to re-enact fables and fairy tales based on the works of Krylov and Hans Christian Andersen.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova performed in children's hospitals and mental asylums, contributing to her family's history of philanthropy.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova published books and pamphlets on design and movement, including a history of the art and descriptions of the contributing puppeteers.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova disavowed claims that puppets are lifeless automatons, maintaining that the puppeteer must convince the audience they are alive.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova viewed the connection between manikin and manipulator as symbiotic collaboration: rather than the puppeteer forcing choreography upon the puppet, the doll's limitations helped the puppeteer learn to communicate in new ways.

In 1935, Nina Simonovich-Efimova's Notes was translated and published in English, as The Adventures of a Russian Puppet Theatre, bringing her ideas to international attention.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova patented a new type of rod puppet with rods attached to the elbows to free up the hands.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova utilized other apparatus, like springs in the body of a cat puppet to give it the flexibility of a live animal.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova developed a new system of life-sized manikins, blurring the lines between puppetry and acting, when she danced on stage with her Petrushka.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova was inspired to depict women in their regional dress digging potatoes, comforting their children, or attending fairs and festivals.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova painted pictures of women and girls in 1924 and again in 1926 while in Lipetsk; colorful images with reds, greens and ambers in a noted series called "Tambov women"; picturesque scenes from Bashkiria and Udmurtia; and a critically acclaimed series created in Crimea and Novgorod.

The paintings from the period comprise mostly landscapes of the area surrounding the city and ancient buildings, where Nina Simonovich-Efimova walked to enjoy the peace of her surroundings.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova taught at Moscow's Museum for the Protection of Maternity and Infancy, the Union of Theatre Workers of the Russian Federation and the variety theater of the Mosesstrana.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova worked in the Lefortovo District at the First Mobile Hospital tending to wounded soldiers and writing letters for them to their families and comrades.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova died on 24 February 1948 in Moscow, Soviet Union.

Nina Simonovich-Efimova left a large legacy, including around 3,000 works, some of which are housed in a memorial workshop at their former home, though art historians mostly ignored her work until the end of the 20th century.