A few surviving visual and documentary sources related to the exhibition Women Artists to Victims of the War organised by the Moscow Union of Women Painters in winter 1914 represent a useful primary material for piecing together fragments of the history of this short-lived female art group. The Union exemplified impressive gender changes in educational and professional spheres of Russian art. Yet, it failed to attract strong membership and disintegrated within few years after its institution. By analysing available evidence this essay seeks to uncover and assess the causes of the Union’s defeat in establishing a prominent public profile
