Memory of Russia: Exhibition "A Road to Tavricheskaya. The Siege Graphics by Elena Marttila" launched in Saint-Petersburg

The State Memorial Museum of the Defence and Siege of Leningrad launched the exhibition "A Road to Tavricheskaya. The Siege Graphics by Elena Marttila". The exposition features the artist's works from the museum's collections. It also showcases drawings of the Siege and post-war times, the "Meeting" lithograph, donated to the museum in February 2021, by Marttila's nephew Vladimir Anatolyevich Yegorov.

Elena Oskarovna Marttila was born on January 6, 1923. She graduated from the art school at the All-Russian Academy of Arts in 1941, on the eve of the war. When the war began, she became a volunteer in the ambulance detachment of the district Red Cross. She used to be a nurse in the Nadezhda Krupskaya Children's Hospital and evacuated children. In November 1941, she entered the Leningrad Art School. The institution continued to work during the Siege and supported young artists, helped them overcome the war sorrows and gave hope. The school was located on Tavricheskaya Street in house number 35. During the Siege, Elena Marttila had to pass a heroic way to the school every day. She made her first sketches of the besieged Leningrad before evacuation in April 1942.

In 1943, she and her mother returned to their old apartment in Leningrad, although the Siege was still there. The director of the Leningrad Art School Ya. K. Shablovsky invited her to continue studies. She graduated from the school with honours in 1948.

In the 1960s, the artist turned to the Siege theme again. In the 1960s – 1990s, she created a series of prints and cardboard engravings devoted to the Siege. The State Russian Museum purchased her first cardboard engraving "Student".

Elena Martilla participated in more than 130 exhibitions. Her works are in the State Russian Museum, the Theatre Museum, the National Library of Russia, several regional art museums in Russia and the CIS, as well as private collections in Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, the UK and the USA.

The exhibition will run until March 31, 2021.