© The estate of Marevna

Russian emigre Marevna settled in Paris in 1912 amid the artistic community of La Ruche, where her circle included Amedeo Modigliani, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall and Chaim Soutine; she exhibited at The Tuileries in 1912. In 1915 she met the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, with whom she had a daughter, Marika, and under his influence, embraced cubism. She moved to England with her daughter in 1921. This portrait is undated but is likely to date from the late 1960s when Marevna made many portraits from memory, recalling the Parisian circle of her youth.