Sophia Ivanovna Kramskaya was born in 2 September 1867 in
Vypolzovo, a village in
Pereslavsky Uyezd,
Vladimir Governorate, the daughter of the prominent
Realist painter
Ivan Kramskoi. At the time of her birth, the Kramskoi family were spending the summer at the estate of her father's friend and fellow painter Mikhail Tulinov. While attending a private women's
gymnasium, the teenage Kramskaya began to study painting under her father, who had recognised her artistic talents and sought to foster her abilities. Kramskaya, like her father, specialised in
portrait painting in the Realism style. A portrait of Ivan Kramskoi, painted shortly before his sudden death in 1887, was one of her earliest works. After her father's death, she took drawing and painting lessons from
Alexander Litovchenko,
Alexander Sokolov, and
Arkhip Kuindzhi. Kramskaya became engaged to Sergey Sergeyevich Botkin, the eldest son of
Sergey Botkin, but engagement broke down. By 1888, Kramskaya was participating in many exhibitions in both Russia and abroad, with her success leading to a steady amount of commissions, mainly from the Russian upper class. In the early 1890s, Kramskaya attended a private painting school in Paris, where she was supervised by the sculptor
Mark Antokolsky. Kramskaya
exhibited her work at the
Woman's Building at the 1893
World's Columbian Exposition in
Chicago, Illinois. Kramskaya was married to George Junker, a lawyer in
Saint Petersburg, from 1901 until his death in 1916. ==Gallery==