Maria Bashkirceva

An artist from Ukraine who conquered Paris at the end of the 19th century; after her early death, her published diaries gained immense popularity.

An active participant in the suffragette movement, she published an article under the pseudonym Polina Orelli about women artists denied the chance to study and exhibit on equal terms with men, and about the double standards of the morality of her time. A year after her death, a large solo exhibition of her work was held in Paris.