Lot 158

Marina Richter (1962) HOMMAGE TO PRINCESS DASHKOVA

Ekaterina Dashkova was an important figure of the Russian Enlightenment – she translated, wrote for newspapers, devoted herself to literature and music, and was the first woman without tsarist origins to hold high government positions at the tsarist court. She was friends with Diderot and Voltaire, and her meeting with Benjamin Franklin enabled her to join the American Philosophical Society. She was the first president of the new Russian Academy of Sciences.