Portrait of People's Artist of the USSR Yu. S. Lavrov

Taisiia Pavlivna Zhaspar was a Ukrainian Soviet artist and children's writer, a philanthropist, a member of the Atelier artists' association since 1942, and a member of the Union of Soviet Artists of Ukraine from 1955. She was born on October 5 (18), 1912 in the city of Tobolsk (now Tyumen region, Russia). After the October Revolution, she lived with her family in China. She received her primary art education in Harbin in the studio of Alexander Stepanov. In 1932, Zhaspar founded a vocational school for women in Shanghai, and in 1936, she founded the House of Russian Women and gave lessons in applied art to Chinese women. In 1940, she graduated from the private art studio of Mikhail Kichihin in Shanghai, and in 1945 she graduated from the private art studio of Viktor Podhursky. In 1947-1948, she studied for some time at the Grand Chaumière Academy in Paris. In 1952, she repatriated to the USSR. Zhaspar collaborated with the magazines "Soviet Woman", "Barvinok", and "Pioneer" and the publishing houses "Molod" and "Derzhlitvydav". She worked in the field of easel painting and easel and book graphics, and was published as a children's writer. Among her works are the series "Women of Shanghai" (1949), "Chinese Children" (1945), "Mother" (1960), "Sicilian Student F. Muratore" (1985), and others. She participated in exhibitions starting in 1939. Zhaspar died in Kyiv on November 25, 1986. Some of the artist's works are kept in Kharkiv, Odesa, Donetsk, and other museums in Ukraine.