Born in
Tbilisi,
Georgia in 1901, Schmerling was the daughter of
painter and
graphic artist Oscar Schmerling. She graduated from
Tbilisi State Academy of Arts in 1929. She trained many future scholars of Georgian art. She was also an art critic. At one of the first artistic exhibitions in Tbilisi after the loosening of
censorship with the death of
Stalin in 1953, she said, "I am glad that browns have left these walls and that true colors shine on them now." Her collection of
bookplates (ex libris), which includes works by famous Georgian artists and Nikoloz Chernishkov (
ru), was the subject of an exhibition in 2014. == Selected publications ==