Else von Freytag-Loringhoven

Born in 1874 when the German Empire was still in existence, Else Hildegard Plotz suffered a difficult childhood in which she was physically and sexually abused by her father. After having practiced prostitution and engaging in several affairs with both genders, she married an architect from Berlin named August Endell in 1901. The following year, Else took up with her husband's friend, Frederick Philip Grove, with August's apparent acquiescence. The trio lived together in Italy, Switzerland, and France before Else followed Grove to a farm in Sparta, Kentucky. Their relationship dissipated shortly after, and, in 1913, Else married the German baron Leopold von Freytag-Loringhoven in New York. Else modeled for artists like Marcel Duchamp and also produced many of her own works, mostly sculpture pieces and paintings, which have been identified as Dadaist. Penniless, Else returned to Berlin 10 years later. Friends found her in a state of near insanity and set her up in a flat in Paris, where she died of gas suffocation in 1927.

One of Else's most famous piece, God: