Zoia Korvin-Krukovsky

She was born Zoia Korvin-Krukovsky in St. Petersburg, Russia, the daughter of Colonel Krukovsky and Héléne Inkina.

She also studied in Paris for five years (1925–30), both at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and privately with Fernand Léger and Tsuguharu Foujita.

In 1921, Zoia met the Swedish communist politician Karl Kilbom when he was part of a delegation at the Profintern congress held in Moscow.

Among those she painted were Iranian empress Farah Pahlavi, King Hassan of Morocco, Queen Silvia of Sweden, and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.

In 2006, the English novelist Philip Sington published Zoia's Gold, a novel loosely based on the events of her life.