Selected dates:

October 4, 1904

She was born in the village of Ossetishche in the Vitebsk province (Russian Empire, today the Vitebsk region of the Republic of Belarus).

1919

Arrives in Smolensk. Enters the State free workshops "Svomas" , a branch of the Vitebsk UNOVIS operated here, created and headed by the leading avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich. Here she was faced with desperately bold ideas of rebuilding the world with the help of art.

1922

Taking advantage of the right of a refugee from Western Belarus, she ends up in Warsaw, where she is accepted as a student at the Warsaw Academy of Arts without exams. She earned her living as a maid, a nanny and a milliner. Here she met her future husband Stanislav Grabovsky.

1927

The couple go to Paris to continue and complete their studies at the Academy of Modern Art. They become students of Fernand Léger . The master highly appreciated the talent of his student, he offered her the position of an assistant and an apartment at the Academy. Shortly after the birth of their daughter Wanda, the couple separated.

1929-1930

Edition of the French-Polish avant-garde magazine "L'Art Contemporain - Sztuka Współczesna" . She acts under the name of Wanda Khodasevich-Grabowska and publishes her laconic abstract work in the illustrative part of the magazine.

1930s

Participates in the exhibition of the association "Circle and Square" , held in the Parisian gallery "23".

1939

At the beginning of World War II, she joined the Resistance Movement . In occupied Paris, she participated in underground work. During the years of the occupation, she did not paint pictures, but she was active under the name of Georgette Peno in the communist underground.

1944

She joined the Union of Soviet Patriots and the Union for Assistance to Former Prisoners of War .

1945

She organized an auction of paintings , provided her works and convinced celebrities to participate in the auction: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque. The collected funds were sent to benefit Soviet prisoners of war and deportees.

In the post-war period, the artist's work began to gain fame, Picasso appreciated her opinion, and Léger invited her to teach.

February 21, 1952

Fernand Léger proposed to her. But the artist did not let marriage influence her own style and not succumb to the influence of her husband. On the wall of the workshop, she wrote - "Down with Leger."

1960

Nadia created a museum in memory of her teacher and husband. The grand opening of the Fernand Léger Museum took place under the honorary chairmanship of Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.

She continued to work, participated in social movements and political committees, but spent most of her time organizing exhibitions and traveling to Russia .

November 7, 1982

She died and was buried in Grasse.

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Literature:

"Nadya Leger tells", Dubenskaya, 1978.

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The artist about herself and her work:

"What a hungry loaf of bread, what a cold firewood in a flaming stove, was drawing for me. And everything else is in the dark."

" I'm Russian, or rather, Belarusian ... ".

"It's unrealistic... but I keep dreaming and dreaming. I'm walking through the forest, lowering my eyes, looking for mushrooms... I'm digging potatoes in the garden, a shovel in the ground... the heat hits my head, and one thing gnaws at me: I want to be an artist - and that's it !".

"Do not think that I was a modest girl - my name was Nadya the Cossack. From childhood I was accustomed to work ... But in my thoughts one thing: I want to be an artist! Probably fate ...".

"I promised to call Mark and remind him: it's time for him to visit his homeland - he left it at the age of Christ .... They didn't forget about him, right?"