since we’re on the topic here’s the painter herself… born maria gorska, in russia, to a wealthy and prominent polish family.  her father was a lawyer, and her mother a socialite. maria attended boarding school in switzerland, and spent the winter of 1911 with her grandmother in italy and on the french riviera, where she was treated to her first taste of the great masters of italian painting. in 1912, her parents divorced and maria went to live with her wealthy aunt in st petersburg. in 1913, at the age of fifteen, while attending the opera, maria spotted the man she became determined to marry (ok so we can not blame the russian models anymore). she promoted her campaign through her well-connected uncle and in 1916 she married tadeusz lempicki (1888–1951) in st. petersburg—a well-known ladies’ man. in 1917, during the russian revolution tadeusz was arrested in the dead of night by the bolsheviks. maria searched the prisons for him and after several weeks, with the help of the swedish consul, she secured his release. they traveled to copenhagen then london, and finally to paris, to where maria’s family had also escaped, not unlike many other upper-class russian refugees. in paris, the lempickis lived for a while from the sale of family jewels and the rest is history as they say… or in this case because im sick of copying wikipedia for you lazy ass people… by dd