Nijni-Novgorod

This work depicts the city known in English as Nizhny Novgorod, located in Russia at the confluence of the Volga and Oka rivers. From 1932 to 1990, it was known as Gorky, after the Marxist writer Maxim Gorky, who was born there. During the Soviet era, the city was known for its industrial production, in particular for military equipment and the Gorky Automobile Plant, and for much of that time it was closed to foreigners.

Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, the daughter of a diplomat, traveled widely in her youth; she moved to Paris in 1928 from her native Portugal and her works display the influence of Cubism and Futurism that she encountered in France. Later she moved with her Hungarian husband, the artist Árpád Szenes, to Brazil. After World War II she returned to Paris, continuing to paint and draw in a complex, abstract style while also creating prints, ceramics, and designs for tapestries and stained glass.