Goncharova, Natalia Sergeyevna 1881-1962
French painter and designer

Born in Ladyzhino, Tula province, Russia, she began as a science student but turned (c.1898) to sculpture, studying at the Moscow Academy of Art. She began painting in 1904 and, like Mikhail Larionov (with whom she lived and whom she eventually married on her 74th birthday) and Kasimir Malevich, chose the flat colours and primitive forms of Russian folk art, combining these with the new influences of Cubism and Fauvism with an original flair. She moved to Geneva in 1915 with Larionov to design for Sergei Diaghilev's ballets, and went to Paris in 1921. She took French nationality in 1938.