A petite blue-eyed blonde, she was said not to have been a conventional beauty; but an outgoing nature paired with the proverbial depth of the Russian soul seems to have given her a special charm that easily elicited an enthusiastic echo from her contemporaries.
In 1912, as a twenty-year-old budding talent, Marevna moved to Paris, where she continued her art studies and soon began displaying her work at exhibitions.
Among them were Georges Braque, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Ilya Ehrenburg, Maxim Gorki, Max Jacob, Moise Kisling, Pinchus Krémègne, Fernand Léger, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, and Chaïm Soutine.
A knife was hidden in her sleeve, and as I kissed her for the last time, she carved a wide gash in the back of my neck.... As I lay on the floor unconscious, Marievna cut her throat.
[7] According to Rivera, "[a]bout six months after I had resumed living with Angeline, Marievna began taking a stand before the door of our house.... She was pregnant and she was accusing me of deserting her with child....
Her paintings from this time include a portrait of its owner – her son-in-law Rodney Phillips – and the stunning topiaries in its Great Court ("Pyramid Garden").
The Pushkin Club for Russian exiles in London arranged an exhibition of her paintings but the poor lighting and hanging made for a disaster and even at the rock bottom price of $60 there were no sales.
While unfortunately the contract for the work ended in court proceedings, the catalogue and online reproductions of over 100 pictures are available (for reference only) on the official site of Anya Teixeira for the years up till 1967.
This catalogue and the slides have been digitized and are held for research purposes by the Women's Art Library, a branch of Goldsmiths College, London.