Marevna (Maria Bronislawowna Worobjewa-Stebelskaja) was born into the Polish nobility in Cheboksary in the Russian Empire in 1892, and grew up in Tbilisi, Georgia. After studying at Moscow's Stroganov Art Academy, she settled in Paris in 1912, amid the artistic community of La Ruche in Montparnasse, embracing cubism under the influence of Diego Rivera. In 1949 she moved to England to be with her daughter, with whom she lived at Athelhampton House, Dorset; she spent her last years in Ealing, London.
The painter known as 'Marevna' (née Maria Bronislawowna Worobjewa-Stebelskaja) was born to a Polish nobleman father and a Russian mother in Cheboksary, Kazan province, Russia on 14 February 1892. Her mother was an actress (née Rosanovich), who subsequently married Aleksandr Vorob’ev and although raised by her father, Marevna took the name of her mother's husband. She grew up in Tbilisi, Georgia and studied in the Caucasus and then at Moscow's Stroganov Art Academy in 1910. In 1911 she moved to Italy to further her studies, and in Capri met the Russian author Maxim Gorky, who gave her the nickname 'Marevna' (after a Russian fairy sea princess), which she kept for the rest of her life. During this period she signed her works ‘Marea Marevna’ (translating as ‘daughter of the sea'). In 1912 she settled in Paris, where her circle included the Russian writer Ilya Ehrenburg, whose poems she later illustrated, and after settling in Montparnasse at La Ruche (The Beehive) studios, she associated with many of the principal artists of the so-called École de Paris, or School of Paris – a loose association of émigré artists including Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso and Chaïm Soutine – many of whom she captured in portrait sketches. In 1912 her work was exhibited at The Tuileries, Paris. In 1915 she met the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, with whom four years later she had a daughter, Marika (1919–2010), before leaving him in 1921, and under Rivera's influence, she embraced cubism (which she called 'dimensionalism'), gaining renown as the first female Cubist painter. She also created fabric patterns inspired by Georgian designs for leading French fashion designer and couturier Paul Poiret. Between 1918 and 1943, she often adopted a Neo-Impressionist manner and stippled technique in both portraiture and landscapes, holding solo exhibitions in Paris at Galerie du Quotidien in 1929, and the Zborowski Gallery in 1936.
During the Second World War, Marevna took refuge in the South of France before, in 1949, joining Marika in England, initially at Athelhampton House, a Tudor manor in Dorset, which was purchased in that year by Marika's husband, the publisher Rodney Phillips. Marevna worked in a wing of the house (now used for temporary exhibitions). During this period, she held an exhibition at the Lefèvre Gallery in London (1952). Works executed at still displayed at Athelhampton include a drawing of Marika with her son, David; a portrait of the photographer Angus McBean, who often visited the house, dressed in Tudor costume (his photographs of Marika are also housed at Athelhampton), and a landscape of the famous pyramid topiaries in Athelhampton's Great Court garden.
In 1957, following Marika's separation from Phillips, Marevna moved with her daughter and two grandsons to Ealing, London, where she remained for the rest of her life. She exhibited at Pushkin House, London in 1958, wrote her memoirs, based on her Paris years and outlining the difficulties faced by women artists, and continued to paint. In the 1960s she returned to France to paint portraits of her old friends – included in the publication Homage to Friends from Montparnasse (1962) – reworking various paintings she had made around 1920. She also continued to exhibit abroad including in Paris in 1953, and retrospectives were held at the Petit Palais in Geneva in 1971 and (posthumously) at the Musée Bourdelle in Paris in 1985. Marevna died in London, England on 4 May 1985. Her first solo exhibition in Russia was held at Moscow's State Tretyakov Gallery in 2004. A selling exhibition was held at the Court Gallery in Somerset in 2019. Marevna's work is held in UK collections including Athelhampton House, the Ben Uri Collection and Tate Liverpool, as well as the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and the Petite Palace, Geneva.