Alexander Raoul Stavenitz was born in Kiev, Russia on May 31, 1901. He immigrated to the United States and studied art and design at Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, where he received a B.A in 1926.

He pursued further study at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1927 and then in New York at the Art Students League, between 1928–31. He began working as architectural and industrial designer, associated with George Cooper Rudolph in New York City.

Stavenitz worked in the New York WPA as the director of the Art Teaching Division for the Federal Art Project. He exhibited at the Brooklyn Society of Etchers in 1930, 1931; the Chicago Society of Etchers, 1930, 1931; the Philadelphia Society of Etchers, 1930, 1931; the National Arts Club “Living American Etchers,” 1930, 1931; International Print Exhibition, Pasadena, 1931; International Print Exhibition, Cleveland, 1931; Whitney Museum of American Art, 1931. His work was included in “Fifty Prints of the Year” in 1931.

Stavenitz was married to fellow artist Barbara Burrage (1900-1989). He taught at Pratt Institute between 1945 – 47, and City College in New York in 1950. He was an instructor at MOMA’s People’s Art Center in New York and lectured on design and the arts.

Alexander and Barbara Stavenitz moved to Norwalk, Connecticut in 1953, where he died on February 11, 1960.

Barbara Burrage Stavenitz was born on December 1, 1900 in Lafayette, Indiana and died in Norwalk, Connecticut on March 4, 1989.

Little is availble at this time about her life, beyond the fact that she too, was a printmaker who sometimes collaborated with her husband.