Professor Rosalind Polly Blakesley

Rosalind Polly Blakesley specialises in the art of imperial Russia and the Baltic region, with particular interest in portraiture; women artists; the history of artistic education and professionalisation; and ways in which questions of nationhood and artistic identity intersect with broader cross-cultural concerns. A Trustee of the V&A, Syndic of the Fitzwilliam Museum and Trustee of the Samuel Courtauld Trust, she has also served on the boards of the National Portrait Gallery, Kettle’s Yard and the Hamilton Kerr Institute. Exhibitions she has worked on include An Imperial Collection at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC; International Arts and Crafts at the V&A; and Russia and the Arts at the National Portrait Gallery, part of a groundbreaking exchange with the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow. Awards include the Pushkin Medal and, for her book, The Russian Canvas, the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize and the Art Newspaper Russia Best Book Award. 

Blakesley’s latest book, Women Artists in the Reign of Catherine the Great (2023), explores the Russian engagements of both neglected and acclaimed women artists, underscoring the extent to which cultural enrichment co-existed with Catherine’s imperial designs. She is now working on the research project Russia, Empire, and the Baltic Imagination, supported by a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust.