Before leaving Europe, Rivera had an intense, tumultuous affair with another Russian artist in Montparnasse: Maria Vorobieff-Stebelska, widely known by the pseudonym Marevna. In 1919, while still maintaining his domestic life with Beloff, Rivera became the father of Marika Rivera. Marevna was a pioneer of Cubism and one of the rare female figures actively exhibiting in the Montparnasse circle alongside Picasso and Modigliani.
Rivera refused to officially acknowledge Marika on her French birth registry, though her physical resemblance to him was unmistakable. Raised primarily by her mother in precarious financial circumstances across France and England, Marika developed a fierce, theatrical personality. She pursued the performing arts, training as a dancer and stage actress. Throughout the mid-twentieth century, Marika appeared in multiple British and European film and theater productions, including a memorable performance in Federico Fellini's 1976 classic Casanova. Although she saw her father only intermittently throughout her adult life, Marika remained deeply proud of her mixed heritage, writing candidly about the emotional strains of growing up as the unacknowledged daughter of a muralist giant.
