Tatiana Kosinskaya

Tatiana Kosinsky (13th/26th of August 1903, Riga, Russian Empire – 21st of March 1981, California, USA) – an icon painter.

Tatiana Kosinsky was born in Riga in the family of an economist Vladimir Kosinsky, who had been working at the Riga Politechnic Institute from 1901 to 1904. Her childhood and teenage years were spent in Odessa and Kiev where he father was working. In 1922 the family emigrated to Czechoslovakia, to Prague, where V. Kosinsky worked as a teacher at the Russian University Courses.   

Already as a child she got interested in drawing, and in 1911-1912 studied at the Art School of S. Mako in Nice (France). In Prague Tatiana Kosinsky studied at the Art Academy, where not only did she learn how to embroider icons, but also started to draw them professionaly. 

In 1928 the Kosinsky family once again moved to Riga, where V. Kosinsky received the possition of a professor at the University of Latvia. After her arrival to Riga, Tatiana Kosinsky started her studies at the workshop of a well-known old-believer icon painter P. Sofronov, and also attended the studio of S. Vinogradov. Soon she opened her own workshop and started receiving orders. She made two icons for the Cathedral of Saint Boris and Gleb in Daugavpils, several icons for the monastery in Ilūkste, 4 icons were made for Šķilbēne church.  

In 1937-1938 (with breaks) she had been working and living in Jerusalem. 

At the end of 1930ies Tatiana Kosinsky once again moved to Prague where she oversaw the restoration works of the God Mother's Assumption church  at the Olšany Cemetery. After 1945 she lived in Anieres (by Paris), where she became a nun under the name of Seraphima and continued icon painting. In 1958 she moved to the USA, where she resumed her work. 

Tatiana Kosinsky died on 21 of March 1981 in Menlo Park, California.

Her brothers: Andrei (1897 - ?) and Vladimir (1908-1959).

The text was prepared by Tatiana Feigmane

Sources of information:

История и архитектура Русского Зарубежья 

Фото из личного архива Веры Бартошевской