Goncharova was born in Negaevo, in the Tula Province on June 16, 1881. She was the daughter of Sergei Goncharov, an architect, and Ekaterina Il'ichna Beliaeva. In 1898 she enrolled as a student in the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. While attending the Moscow School of Art, Goncharova met Mikhail Larionov who encouraged her to leave sculpture for painting.

Initially she was attracted to Impressionism and Expressionism, and in 1910 Goncharova became one of the founding members of the "Jack of Diamond." She later left this group to and joined the "Donkey's Trail" group with Mikhail Larionov. He was Natalia's companion and later became her husband. The group’s first exhibition was held in 1912 and featured more than 50 of the artist’s paintings of various styles.

In 1913, an exhibition with only Goncharova's work, exhibited 700 of her paintings, giving her international attention. She completed her designs for Diaghilev's production of Le coq d'or, which were immediately accepted by Parisians. After considerable success, in the period which corresponded with the beginning of the war, Goncharova returned to Moscow. She left Russia and went to Switzerland in June 1915.

The Influences

The war was crucial in Natalia's expression of art because she lived with theconstant worry that her beloved Larinov (who was serving at the front) would loose his life while in service. 

"Goncharova was inevitably affected, not only by [Larinov's] suffering but by the series of defeats inflicted on the Russian Troops" (Cork, 49).

Within Angels and Aeroplanes you can see the angels are inflicting their demands on the airplanes and seem to be deliberately guiding the outcome of the war. However, in A Common Grave, the angles cannot do anything else but contemplate the cadavers of the dead soldiers.

"Hence the ambivalence of Goncharova’s fourteen lithographs…disclose considerable misgivings about the conduct of the war even as she tries to represent it as [a] divinely protected, triumphant endeavour"(C, 49).