Armenian female artist who modelled for Matisse

The Armenian female artist Vava Khatchadourian was born on February 12, 1895, in Trebizond, Ottoman Empire, and spent most of her childhood in Batumi. Prior to pursuing an artistic career, Khatchadourian lived in Vienna and Paris, where she modeled for the famous French painter Henri Matisse and others. 

In 1920, she married famed Armenian painter and muralist Sarkis Khatchadourian in Tiflis. After extensive travels worldwide, including several years living in India and Iran, Vava and Sarkis settled in New York to begin a new life in 1941. She started painting in 1945. Her works can be found at the National Gallery of Armenia and in private collections. She died of cancer in 1984 in Manhattan, New York.