I could've spent the whole month just profiling women artists in history but I've been really trying to cover almost all professions. Now I feel like I haven't done nearly enough artists.

Maria Bashkirtseff was born in Gavrontsi, Pultowa, Russia, on the 11th of November, 1858, to a family of nobility. Her father was marshal of the nobility at Pultowa. When Marie was seven years old, her parents separated and she left Russia with her mother to spend the winters in Nice and Italy, and the summers in Germany. She had a significantly better education than most girls. Through private tutors she was able to read Plato and Virgil in Greek as well as read and write four other languages. A naturally gifted musician, she had hoped to be a singer, and studied in Italy but her voice was not strong enough to continue in a professional capacity.

When she lost her voice she devoted herself to painting, and in 1877 settled in Paris, where she studied at the Académie Julian in Paris where she was taught by Jules Lepage and Tony Robert-Fleurys. She traveled all over Europe and exhibited in several salons. She was considered a promising painter and sculptor, mainly of portraits, but she painted several works that really captured scenes of her observed life in Paris, most notably, In The Studio and The Meeting.

Her health had always been always delicate and with the chaos from her hard work and success it quickly weakened. She died of tuberculosis on October 31, 1884.

While her paintings are notable she's most well known for the personal journals she kept from the age of thirteen. Her personal account of the struggles of women artists is documented, as well as descriptions of her interaction and correspondence with famous painters and notable personalities of the time. It was published shortly after her death and is still in print today.

Most of her artwork would end up in the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg, many pieces would be destroyed during the Second World War.