The Real 'Young Russian': In Conversation with the Daughter of Boris de Chroustchoff

Brown, Catherine (2024) The Real 'Young Russian': In Conversation with the Daughter of Boris de Chroustchoff. Journal of D. H. Lawrence Studies, 7 (1). pp. 287-298. ISSN 1759-1066

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Abstract

D. H. Lawrence's 'Women in Love' (1919) contains one of literary modernism's most notable discussions of 'primitive' art. 'Women in Love' being clearly a roman à clef, some attempts have been made to ascertain the model for the 'young Russian', Maxim Libidnikov, who informs this discussion - hitherto without success. This article summarises my finding of that model - one Boris de Chroustchoff - who paid Lawrence, and therefore modernist literature, the service of introducing him to African traditional art. The methodology is my interview of Boris's daughter, Natasha, and background research in the British Museum, Pitt Rivers Museum, and relevant literature. The result is not only that a conundrum in Lawrence studies has been solved, but light has been shed on the kinds of means whereby modernist authors were made aware of, gained access to, and were influenced by, traditional art.

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