Art in Utero

maria zvereva, 24, gazed at the portrait of Russian princess Yelena Pavlovna and her young daughter, painted by Karl Bryullov, and patted her own swelling tummy. “I like the image of this angelic girl because we are also expecting a daughter. And I thought that my girl would look like this cute child,” she said.

Zvereva was one of about 30 young mothers who toddled through the hushed galleries of St. Petersburg’s Russian Museum, hoping that art inspired by serenity and bliss would soothe their jangled nerves and guarantee blissful babies.

Twice each week, the museum offers tours of calmly inspiring masterpieces for expectant mothers, guided by a scientific worker and a gynecologist, in what museum officials say is the only  program of its kind.