Russian icons

19 June 1904 – 24 September 1993

Tamara Talbot Rice was a Russian then English art historian, writing on Byzantine, Russian, and Central Asian art. Tamara Talbot Rice was born Elena Abelson, to Louisa Elizabeth ("Lifa") Vilenkin and Israel Boris Abelevich Abelson, the latter a businessman and member of the Czar's financial administration. Leo Tolstoy was her godfather. Elena lived a privileged childhood in St. Petersburg, Russia, initially attending Tagantzeva Girls' School. The Russian Revolution of 1917 prompted her family to move to England, and she completed her schooling, first at Cheltenham Ladies' College and then at St. Hugh's College, Oxford, England. In 1927 she married the English art historian David Talbot Ri…