Maria Dmytrivna Raevska-Ivanova was born into a landowner's family in the village of ,
Izyumsky Uyezd,
Kharkov Governorate, which was founded by her grandfather Gavrilo Ivanov at the end of the 18th century. The family was engaged in and earned their living from
agriculture. Her father, Dmytro Ivanov, followed in his grandfather's footsteps, becoming a military man. Since she could not get an education at the
Imperial Academy of Arts (
St. Petersburg; the only art educational institution in the
Russian Empire at that time)
because she was a woman, she studied at home and engaged in self-education. She studied in
Dresden with professors
Ludwig Erhardt and
Anton Dietrich. She studied German language and literature. In 1869, she returned to
Kharkiv, she borrowed 500 rubles from her mother to organize
art classes and publish their opening in Kharkiv newspapers. The school taught
painting,
drawing,
drafting,
sculpture,
porcelain painting,
wood burning, leather embossing, and
theatrical scenery painting. Since the opening of the school, the trustee of the Kharkiv educational district,
active state councilor, founder of the city literacy society, craft school, one of the organizers of the People's House taught for free. began to allocate 200 rubles annually to the school, which covered only a small part of the expenses. The school she created operated for twenty-seven years and taught about 900 students, including
Serhii Vasylkivsky,
Oleksiy Beketov,
Henryk Siemiradzki,
Vladimir Beklemishev,
Vasyl Yermylov,
Kostyantyn Pervukhin and many others.In 1912, the school became the "
Kharkiv Art School"; a satellite school of the Imperial Academy under the direction of
Alexander Lubimov. For the school in the same year on Kaplunivska Street (now (Art Street)), a new building was built. The author of the project is architect . The architect designed the facade in the , which was protested by pro-Russian politicians of the time. Completely blind, she taught until the end of her life. Some paintings by Maria Dmytrivna Raevska Ivanova were exhibited at the
Kharkiv Art Museum, which was closed after a
Russian missile hit in 2022. On October 7, 2021, a
monument to the artist and educator Maria Raevska-Ivanova was unveiled in front of the modern school building (now the
Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Arts) on . The monument was created according to the project of Nelya Vytvytska, which she made in 1998. The
Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkachenko was present at the opening of the monument. After the start of the
Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the monument was temporarily dismantled to protect it from shelling. The monument has now been returned to its place. == Works ==