The National Gallery leaflet describes Volkova as Anrep's sister in law. But this photo of Anrep and Volkova at the completed 'Awakening of the Muses', is captioned: "Maria Volkova - the only woman mosaic artist in the world - is assisting her cousin Mr Boris Anrep with his remarkable floor decorations at the National Gallery ...".
describes the relationship between Anrep and Volkova in quite different terms: "During this period of his life he divorced his wife, married Helen Maitland, by whom he already had two children and met Maria Volkova – his companion for many years on, which resulted in his wife leaving him for Roger Fry. ... When Maria Volkova died, he settled with Maud Russell ..."
This suggests to us that the "sister in law" "mosaic artist" and "cousin" were all inventions to explain why this woman was spending so much time in the company of Anrep, a married man.
Looking for more information on Volkova we found the Wikipedia page for (1905-75) a Russian ballet dancer and expatriate dance teacher, but that page has no mention of Anrep nor of a Maria, so maybe there is no connection.
In this photo Volkova is resting on a walking stick and looking away while Anrep closely examines the Muse mosaic floor. If she really was a mosaic artist her lack of interest is surprising. Note also: just to the right of Anrep's foot you can make out the dark hair of one of the Muses - that's Urania/Volkova. (We don't know but think the black lines may be physical damage to the photograph.)
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