Marianne von Werefkin(1860-1938)

Marianne von Werefkin was a Russian-German-Swiss Expressionist painter. She was born in the Russian town of Tula to a commander of a Russian regiment and his wife. 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. In 1892 she met Alexej von Jawlensky, who desired to be her protégé, and in 1896 they moved to Munich. She began painting again in 1906. In 1907 she created her first expressionist works. She and Jawlensky spent in 1908 several periods working with Kandinsky and Münter after their discovery of the picturesque rural town of Murnau near Munich. At the outbreak of the First World War, Werefkin and Jawlensky immigrated to Switzerland, near Geneva. They later moved to Zurich. By 1918, they had separated, and Werefkin moved alone to Ascona, on Lago Maggiore where she painted many colorful, landscapes in an expressionist style. In 1924 she founded the artist group "Großer Bär". In her later years, she painted posters. Her friends "Carmen" and "Diego Hagmann" protected her from poverty. Marianne von Werefkin died in Ascona on 6 February 1938. She is buried in the Russian graveyard in Ascona.