(1885-1950)
Sidone Nádherná, Czech noblewoman, patroness, muse. Few women in history have charmed famous artists as much as Sidonie Nádherná, the last owner of a chateau in a small town of Central Bohemia. Her admirers included the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, the painter Max Švabinský and the Austrian poet and journalist Karl Kraus. She contributed to the development of cultural life in Czechia. She amassed an outstanding art collection. As one of the first women in the country, she drove a car, travelled all over Europe, her “insatiable desire to travel” took her all the way to Palestine. World War II turned her life upside down. Sidonie lost all her friends and relatives who either died or emigrated. Her property was taken over by the Nazis and they set up a military headquarters and a training ground for SS troops there. Not long after the communist coup of 1948, she immigrated to Great Britain.