Alexandra Pregel (née Avksentiev, 1907- 1984) is a Franco-Russian artist, who spent the last forty four years of her life in the United States. Her works reflect her solid classical training and versatile technique, but, most importantly, they show an artist who was in constant search for new ways of artistic expression. She created works both in a wide variety of genres (still life, landscapes, portraits, nudes, interiors) and in a wide range of styles from figurative to abstract.

Alexandra was the daughter of Maria Zetlin (née Tumarkin, 1882-1976), a talented and independent woman who received a Doctor of Philosophy while living in Switzerland in early 1900s, and of Nikolai Avksentiev (1878-1943), one of the Russian revolutionaries, who was a minister in the Kerensky’s provisional government formed after the 1917 February Revolution. Her parents were married in 1906, while imprisoned for political reasons in the famous Saint Peterburg prison, the Fortress of Peter and Paul. After their escape from the prison, they reunited in Finland, but in 1909 were divorced. In 1910 Maria married Mikhail Zetlin, a writer, translator and publisher. In 1919, two years after the Russian October Revolution—described by Russian writer, Ivan Bunin as “Russia’s big downfall”—Zetlin’s family emigrated to France.