Irena Pokrzywnicka is an almost completely forgotten artist. Most of her works were destroyed during the second world war. The most information published about her in Polish sources is to be found an the exhibition catalogue from the National Museum, Warsaw. Daughter of estate owners Stanislawa and Wladyslaw Pokrzywnicki, Irena Pokrzywnicka-Borowska was born in Wola Zagórska. From 1914 she began presenting her works to the Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts (TZSP) in Warsaw. During the first world war, she began studying in Moscow, later studying empirically ancient and exotic art in the great museums of Paris and Rome. After 1918, she began creating embroidered works of silk. In 1922 she became a member of the Polish Artists' Association 'Rytm'. From 1925 to 1930 new forms of expression appear connected with the artist's stay in Paris (1928-9), as well as changes in the 'Rytm', subsequently producing work for the popular journals 'Swiat', 'Tygodnik Ilustrowany' and 'Pani'. The work she produced for the Woven Fabrics Section in 'Fashion and Decorated Interiors' for the Polish Pavilion at the New York World Exhibition of 1939 brought her unprecedented success. She spent the occupation period in Poland, took part in the Warsaw Uprising to live in Paris and ultimately London, where she lived until her death on 21st September 1975.