Arts of Japan, Vietnam, Middle East and South-East Asia & 1860-1960 European works of art, paintings, furniture from Japonism to Modern Art.

Marie Vorobieff Marevna (1892-1984)

Female nude with a bouquet
Oil on canvas signed 'Marevna' at lower left. Born in 1892 in Cheboksary, Russia, Marie Vorobieff was the daughter of Jewish actress Maria Rosanovitch, married to Alexandre Vorobieff. At eighteen years old, she left for Moscow to study at the School of Decorative Arts. She frequented museums, discovering the Impressionists and the Italian Primitives. She began traveling around Europe the same year. In Capri, she met the author Maxime Gorki who encouraged her to paint, giving her the nickname "Marevna", after the little sea princess in a Russian fairy-tale. Picasso developed a great admiration for her and became a loyal friend. He is said to have told her "we'll make you a more famous artist than Marie Laurencin". Mareva excelled at portraits. She developed her pictorial technique using broad strokes separating coloured beaches, jerky brush strokes, and geometric angles. She is the first woman to adopt cubism, taking inspiration from Seurat's pointillism.
In a gilt wood frame.

92 x 73 cm

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