Natalia Nesterova

Natalya Igorevna Nesterova was a Russian artist who was an academician with the Russian Academy of Fine Arts. Her work has been described as "strik[ing] the kind of delicate balance between the real and surreal which can evoke a feeling that something is not quite right even before one has the chance to figure out why". Because her works were painted "in a figurative primitivist manner while often depicting grotesque imagery, Nesterova was sometimes accused of undermining the foundations of Russian professional artistic training".