Born on 10th december, 1884, Zinaida Serebriakova was surrounded closely by people belonging to the artistic field. Her parents, Yevgeny Lansere and Yekaterina Lansere were sculptor and painter respectively. Her mother, Yekaterina belonged to the artistic Benois family and grandfather, Nicholas Benois was a prominent architect. Her uncle and brothers were also associated to the field. Her inclination towards painting comes as no surprise. Following her father\'s death in 1886, Zinaida was brought to the Benois household in St. Petersburg by her mother. After graduating from a women\'s gymanasium (equivalent of a higher secondary school), 17 year old Zinaida, joined an art school founded by princess Maria Tenisheva in 1901, where she studied with Ilya Repin. From 1903 to 1905 she was a student at the studio of Osip Braz. Following her marraige with Boris Serebriakov, her educational endevours continued at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris from 1905 to 1906 where she studied the works of Antoine Watteau, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and the Impressionists. Later, in 1906, she joined Mir iskusstva which was an art group founded by her painter-uncle, Alexandre Benois. Apart from being an art group, Mir iskusstva, was also a magazine and it played an important role in development of Russian avanat-garde.

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