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Born at Gavrontsy in Russia in 1860, Marie Bashkirtseff was an extraordinary young woman. She spent her early life in various health resorts in Germany and the Riviera, travelling with her mother, aunt, cousin and various retainers. She initially studied singing until her voice failed her and then, at the age of 17, she began to study painting in Tony Robert-Fleury's Paris studio. Her paintings are in major art galleries all over the world, however, she is not remembered as a painter but as a diarist. Marie kept her journals from the age of four; a mixture of fact and fantasy, she had dreams of grandeur and yearned for greatness. She was beautiful, witty and intelligent an charmed the many influential people she met. Marie as an ambitious girl who wanted fame. She got it - at a price. In 1884, at the age of twenty four after a short lifetime of illness, she died of tuberculosis. Within months of the publication of her diaries in 1890 her fame spread like wildfire throughout Europe and beyond. Marie Bashkirtseff was famous.

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Author: Carlo Ardito