Marianne von Werefkin

Marianne von Werefkin (10 September 1860 - 6 February 1938 ) was a Russian-German-Swiss Expressionist painter. Marianne von Werefkin was born in the Russian town of Tula as the daughter of the commander of the Ekaterinaburg Regiment. She had her first private academic drawing lessons at the age of fourteen. In 1880, she became a student of Ilya Repin, the most important painter of Russian Realism. Her progress was dealt a setback by a hunting accident in 1888 in which she accidentally shot her right hand which remained crippled after a lengthy period of recovery. By practicing persistently she finally managed to use drawing and painting instruments with her right hand again. In 1892 she met Alexej von Jawlensky, who desired to be her protege, and in 1896 she, Jawlensky, and their servant moved to Munich. For the sake of Jawlensky's painting, Werefkin interrupted her painting for almost ten years. She initiated a Salon in Munich which soon became a center of lively artistic exchange. She also founded the “Lukasbruderschaft” of which also Kandinsky was a member. She began painting again in 1906. In 1907 she created her first expressionist works; in these she followed Paul Gauguin's style of "surface painting", while also showing the influence of Edvard Munch