Blakesley is Professor of Russian and European Art at the University of Cambridge, a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and co-founder of the Cambridge Courtauld Russian Art Centre. A
syndic of the
Fitzwilliam Museum, Trustee of the Samuel Courtauld Trust, and former Trustee of the
National Portrait Gallery in London, she has curated exhibitions in Britain, Russia and the US, including
Russia and the Arts: The Age of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky at the National Portrait Gallery in 2016. Blakesley's most recent book,
The Russian Canvas: Painting in Imperial Russia 1757-1881, was awarded the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize, the Art Newspaper Russia Best Book Award, and Honourable Mention from the
Heldt Prize Committee for Best Book by a Woman in Slavic Studies. In 2020, her book on
Catherine the Great was shortlisted for the
Apollo Magazine book of the year award. ==Personal life==