Alexandra Pregel

Alexandra Pregel (née Avksentiev; Russian: Александра Николаевна Прегель, Aleksandra Nikolayevna Pregel) (15 December 1907 – 28 May 1984, New York City) was a Russian artist. She was born in Helsinki, Finland, where her parents lived in political exile from the Czarist régime. Her father was Socialist poltitical figure Nikolai Avksentiev Her father became Minister of the Interior in the Kerensky government. After the October Revolution Pregel left Russia for Paris with her mother Maria and her stepfather, the Russian writer and editor Mikhail Zetlin. In 1921, Alexandra was accepted into the studio of the Russian neo-classic artists Vasil Shukhaev and Aleksandr Yakovlev in Montparnasse. In 1928, Alexandra graduated from the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Arts Decoratifs and continued her studies with Natalia Goncharova. In 1937 she married Boris Pregel, a Ukrainian dealer in uranium and radium. The couple fled to New York City in 1940, after the Nazi invasion of France leaving behind 300 works. They moved into a Manhattan apartment overlooking Central Park, which also become Alexandra’s studio. She had her first exhibition in the United States in 1943 showing 36 paintings and in 1944 Alexandra Pregel was accepted as a member of the National Association of Women Artists. In later years she exhibited regularly, including in Paris in 1947. She also illustrated Russian literary works, the Jewish Bible and the Haggadah (Jewish Passover service). She stopped painting after the death of her husband in 1976.