W. W. Rockhill (London, 1900); Semenoff, _Slovar
Ross. Imp._, s.v.; Frahn, "De Baskiris," in _Mem. de l'Acad. de
St-Petersbourg_ (1822); Florinsky, in _Westnik Evropi_ (1874); and
Katarinskij, _Dictionnaire Bashkir-Russe_ (1900).

BASHKIRTSEFF, MARIA CONSTANTINOVA [MARIE] (1860-1884), Russian artist and
writer, was born at Gavrontsi in the government of Pultowa in Russia on the
23rd of November 1860. When Marie was seven years old, as her father
(marshal of the nobility at Pultowa) and her mother were unable through
incompatibility to live together, Madame Bashkirtseff with her little
daughter left Russia to spend the winters at Nice or in Italy, and the
summers at German watering-places. Marie acquired an education superior to
that given to most girls of her rank. She could read Plato and Virgil in
the original, and write four languages with almost equal facility. A gifted
musician, she at first hoped to be a singer, and studied seriously in Italy
to that end; her voice, however, was not strong enough to stand hard work
and failed her. Meanwhile she was also learning to draw. When she lost her
voice she devoted herself to painting, and in 1877 settled in Paris, where
she worked steadily in Tony Robert-Fleury's studio. In 1880 she exhibited
in the salon a portrait of a woman; in 1881 she exhibited the "Atelier
Julian"; in 1882 "Jean et Jacques"; in 1884 the "Meeting," and a portrait
in pastel of a lady--her cousin--now in the Luxembourg gallery, for which
she was awarded a _mention honorable_. Her health, always delicate, could
not endure the labour she imposed on herself in addition to the life of
fashion in which she became involved as a result of her success as an
artist, and she died of consumption on the 31st of October 1884, leaving a
small series of works of remarkable promise. From her childhood Marie
Bashkirtseff kept an autobiographical journal; but the editors of these
brilliant confessions (_Journal de Marie Bashkirtseff_, 1890), aiming
apparently at captivating the reader's interest by the girl's precocious
gifts and by the names of the various distinguished persons with whom she
came in contact, so treated certain portions as to draw down vehement
protest. This, to some extent, has brought into question the stamp of
truthfulness which constitutes the chief merit of this extraordinarily
interesting book. A further instalment of Marie Bashkirtseff literature was
published in the shape of letters between her a