Sophie Brzeska Artist
Sophie Suzanne Brzeska or Sophie Gaudier-Brzeska (1873–1925) was a Polish writer and artistic muse most noted for being the companion of sculptor/artist Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (a man half her age). They met in 1909 at the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève in Paris, and began an intense symbiotic relationship. Henri annexed her surname although they never married. Much of what scholars and historians have been able to trace about Sophie Brzeska has come from her personal correspondence with Henri. Long an admirer of Gaudier's work, the art collector and historian, H. S. Ede acquired her estate in 1927 from the British Treasury Solicitor. This acquisition included not only her writings, but also the estate of Henri Gaudier, with many of his works and papers. Ede drew extensively on the letters written by Gaudier to Sophie and her writings and other material when he published A Life of Gaudier-Brzeska (London: W. Heinemann) in 1930. The papers he used for this account are now in the archives of Cambridge University, Essex University and the Musée d’Orléans. Time Magazine called his book a "sympathetic but perfectly impersonal... biography." In 2008 Sophie's writings were finally published unexpurgated.