This is the story of a forgotten world celebrity.

Journalist Max Bendixen inherited a painting with a letter by author Karen Blixen pasted on the back. Who was the woman who had painted this picture? He decided to find out and was deeply fascinated by the Polish-born painter Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann (1819-1881).

This biography describes her dramatic life saga and stormy marriage to the depressive Danish sculptor Jens Adolf Jerichau. In Rome, she met the fairytale writer Hans Christian Andersen, and they felt like kindred spirits. With her dynamism and vivacious lifestyle, Mrs Jerichau emerged as a lady of the world and became a celebrated centrepiece of high society.

She was the first European to gain access to the secretive harems of Constantinople - and painted the beautiful Princess Nazili Hanum and several of the slave women. Paintings that today fetch top prices on the international art market.