"Chukchi" Yakut School Girl [Lomonosov]

Yakut Girl with Flower.  Lomonosov porcelain, USSR, 1980's. Overglaze painting. Excellent condition, no defects.  7¾" x 3¾". As shown.

It's the first day of school. Our young girl carries her school book tucked under arm, and a flower in her right hand. By tradition, every child in Russia dresses in their finest clothes and brings a flower (or bouquet) to their teacher on September 1st.

Sometimes known as "Yakut girl", she is actually "Chukchi", or "Chukchee" ("Чучка"), an indigenous nomadic peoples who inhabit the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The Russian name "Chukchi" is derived from the Chukchi word Chauchu, meaning "rich in reindeer". The Russian Empire began to make contact with the Chukchi in the mid-1600's, and for a hundred years, adopted a heavy-handed extermination polic. Eventually peace was brought to the region. Apart from several Orthodox schools, there were no schools in the Chukchi land until the late 1920's.  

The authors of this elegant piece were Sofia Borisovna Velikhova (Софья Борисовна Велихова) (1904-1994) and Elizaveta Nikolaevna Lupanova (Елизавета Николаевна Лупанова) (1910-1973). Both were employed at the production workshops of the Lomonosov factory. Sofia Borisovna graduated from the Leningrad Art and Industry College in 1926 with a degree in Applied Sculptor. She studied at VKhUTEIN (ХУДОЖЕСТВЕННО-ТЕХНИЧЕСКИЙ ИНСТИТУТ) under the Russian sculptor and academician Robert Romanovich Bach (1859-1933). Elizaveta Nikolaevna graduated from the ceramics department of the Leningrad Art and Industry College (1931). She started work at the legendary Leningrad Porcelain Factory (LFZ) in 1937 as a painter of porcelain and was interrupted by the war. She returned to the factory in 1944 and stayed there as painter and sculptor until the end of the 1960's.