‘Lady Zakharova’. Pencil drawing by Koldo Barroso, 2008
“Raisa Zakharova: one of the most enigmatic figures from the Victorian era related with spiritualism circles.
She was born in the Ukraine circa 1820 and was the only daughter of diplomat at the service of Alexander I. In 1836, she met German magician and illusionist Folker Krause and joined him as a partenaire on his theater performances and started studying the world of occult sciences. It was during a performance in London’s Drury Lane Theater that Raisa lost her right eye in a mis fortunate mistake during the execution of one of the magic numbers, which consisted of stopping an arrow shot by her husband with a bow through her own will power.
The most mis fortunate stroke of the Krauses’ life was when the recently created secret services of Imperial Russia accused them of espionage during their tours around Europe. Although there is no real historical evidence, it’s believed that they were both severely tortured, provoking the death of Folker Krause. As legend has it, Lady Zakharova was forced to witness the killing of her husband in agony in order so that the torturers could obtain a confession from her. It’s been also said that, after being raped and her hands cut off, she escaped from her executors by using some sort of control tricks or mental powers. She run away to France and soon after she reestablished herself in London were she rapidly gained a reputation in the spiritualism circles.”
- This Signed 50 Limited Print is now available at the Store.
You can read more about Lady Zakharova and see a color version of this portrait.
Here is extra material and memorabilia about this story.
Is the story honestly inspired by a real person and events? If not, I would remove the part about her being raped. ‘Tortured’ is good enough for people to understand her struggle.
I love the mummified image of her partner, and particularly enjoy the part in the story about how she damaged her one eye.
Have to agree with Ghoul Friday. Like where I think this may be headed – the strength of a women?
The detail in your illustrations simply amaze me.
Maybe it’s me, but when I hear the phrase “She was severely tortured by her male captors” it’s implied that rape took place without hitting the reader over the head with it.
Though it is your story
Thanks GF! I understand your sensitivity about the rape issue and I’m with you, but, sadly, this information is an important key to understand the future development of the story. Her life was full so much tragedy and amazement at the same time!
In my world, there’s a reason for everything in life, good and bad, all information it’s important and it’s there for a reason so the slightest detail can unveil something really essentil to understand the story. It’s like a puzzle that sometimes we don’t understand but one day we see the whole picture and it all makes sense.
In a word, all this will be unveiled in the future but, for now, I can only say that it has to do with the appereance of a new character in the story…
Thank you for letting me know about your thoughts and feelings!
Well, Lady Zakharova was a controversial character and so am not surprised that once again her history has stirred things up. Good or bad, everything that happens in life tends to shape us, and ignoring what happens does not make something go away. It is what it is.
Looking forward to hearing more.
I think you hit the point Sue. It is very interesting for me how different people have a different sensibility about subjects, it’s important to my work to know better about it. This is the moto of this project so I’m very thankful for all of you to let me know!
Lady Zakharova….”she is what she is”(and I love it)! : )
Thanks La Donna! I like that! As an artist my challenge is to accept myself as I am, so why not accepting the characters just as they come? I really never judge them because they are there for a reason, I like it or not. I can only judge if I’m really being honest, true and authentic at portraying them.
That one over-sized eye is so arresting, this coupled with her wooden hands and tragic history makes Lady Zakharova a compelling figure.
I really enjoyed the theatre performances/occult angle–particularly the ‘execution of magic numbers’ I’d love to hear more of this side of the story.
I can see where the some readers might have issues regarding the rape, but I don’t think it hurts for the reader to feel some discomfort. I agree with a previous comment that you’d be wise to treat this ‘without hitting the reader over the head with it’.
I thought the colour version was spectacular.
Welcome to the Character Workshop Dave! I love all the illusionist stuff too, maybe it would be interesting also to focus a little on the figure of Folker Krause, he was such a wonderful magician!
Thanks!
There’s a popularity competition going on this weekend between Lady Zakharova and Boyhands Smoork. The most popular and voted one of them will be printed & given away next week. Get sure to support your fav character!
The hands are totally my favourite part of Lady Zakharova, I would like her torturers to ship them to me please
Would I be stating the obvious if I noted a strong Tim Burton influence in Lady Zakharova?
After the hands, Folker Krause is for me the most enjoyable part of the image, I love his spindly, birdlike appearance.
This girl, Zakharova… Well,it is very personal for me. I was born in Ukraine and had some eye surgery, heh-heh.
There is more.. Occultism was my dad`s hobby. Hi escape from this world when he was 45yar old, but I still feel him staring at buck, br-r-roh-h..
Masterpiece drawing, Koldo!
You’d be surprised, Jesse, I’m a big fan of some of Tim Burton’s works but I was not really influenced for this particularly work. When I did this, I remember being specially influenced by fashion photography and vintage portraits. I look a lot to this kind of stuff so for reasons that I can’t tell there’s always some images that get imprinted somewhere in the back of my mind and then they come out.
For Folker, I was also inspired by photographs of old bentriloquists. When I was 4, my godfather had a bentriloquist dummy and he would play with him and gave me the chills! Ever since, I’ve been always fascinated about them and Zakharova was like taking a step further for the creepy dummy thing…
How nice to have you here, Nadia! And you’re a gifted doll maker too!
Maybe you are a descendent of Raisa Zakharova… and you should be really proud because she was such an intelligent, brave and pioneering woman in her time! This is really, really intriguing…
Koldo, you rock!
I do`t remember being tortured
Lady Zakharova’s misfortunes and pain in her life will lead her down destiny’s path….her events of her life will mold her into who she is to become. That’s true for all of us…through the pain we can overcome….and I want to know more about Lady Zakharova. Will she prevail? When we hear of stories like this it makes us think and feel emotions. The amount of detail you put into your art is incredible and add this to your amazing story telling and it becomes spellbinding.
You may think that because I did this pieces of work I may feel more distant but, to be honest, I feel just the same as you do about Zakharova and other characters. Sometimes it’s really painful for me to think about them… I really like what you said about her, Erin.
I’m sure there will be more to come about her story since she has been so popular from the first time I talked about her in this blog, a few months ago.
Wonderful illustration. I love it even more in color – very eery, in a good way. This is probably not what you want to hear, but between the two people in the illustration, Folker Krause has my undivided attention. He looks like a dead and alive at the same time, with everything that belonging to both realms at once implies. That, and I am not quite fascinated with Raisa and her story.
Koldo, the page title says “Lazy Zakharova” – that’s not right and gives me inappropriate giggles.
Thanks Yelena! My typo thing made Naomi & I laugh so hard!
You know? There’s really nothing I expect or want to hear from you, I just hope to share my world with you and if I can make your lifes just a litter happier and better then that would be the most! But I really accept anything you can say if comes from your heart, just because I really don’t consider myself ‘the owner’ of the characters, so it’s logical that different people have their own preferences for one or another…
F. Krause and his magic shows will definitely show up more here!