Tamara Talbot Rice (19 June 1904 – 24 September 1993) was a Russian then English art historian, writing on

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, and

Central Asian art Central Asian art is visual art created in Central Asia, in areas corresponding to modern Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and parts of modern Mongolia, China and Russia. The art of ancient and medieval ...

. 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 Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

was her godfather. Elena lived a privileged childhood in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

, initially attending Tagantzeva Girls' School. The

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

of 1917 prompted her family to move to England, and she completed her schooling, first at

Cheltenham Ladies' College Cheltenham Ladies' College (CLC) is a private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding and day school for girls aged 11 or older in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. The school was established in 1853 to provide "a sound academic edu ...

and then at

St Hugh's College, Oxford St Hugh's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a ...

. In 1927 she married the English art historian

David Talbot Rice David Talbot Rice (11 July 1903 – 12 March 1972) was an English archaeologist and art historian. He has been described variously as a "gentleman academic" and an "amateur" art historian, though such remarks are not borne out by his many achi ...

, and spent much time travelling abroad with him on archaeological digs; they both published under the surname ''Talbot Rice'', but are often referred to as "Talbot-Rice" or "Rice". She was a close friend of

Evelyn Waugh Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decli ...

and formed part of the '

Brideshead Revisited ''Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder'' is a novel by the English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of Charles Ryder, esp ...

Circle'. She died in 1993 and was buried next to her husband in the churchyard of St Andrew's, Coln Rogers.

Publications (selected)

* 1959: ''Icons'', London: Batchworth Press (revised edition 1960). * 1961: ''The Seljuks in Asia Minor'', 'Ancient People and Places' series. London: Thames and Hudson. * 1963: ''A Concise History of Russian Art'', ' The World of Art Library' series. London: Thames and Hudson. * 1965: '' Ancient Arts of Central Asia'', 'The World of Art Library' series. London: Thames and Hudson. * 1970: ''Elizabeth, Empress of Russia'', London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Talbot Rice, Tamara 1904 births 1993 deaths Russian art historians English art historians Russian women historians Women art historians 20th-century English historians Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United Kingdom Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford Historians of Byzantine art Women Byzantinists Women medievalists 20th-century British women writers