Painter, printmaker, teacher. Born in Leipzig, Germany on Feb. 14, 1884.

Maria studied art for two years in Paris, Rome, and five years at the Munich Academy of Art where she met Baron Herbert Von Rideistein. They were married there and then traveled to the Orient where her husband was imprisoned by the Japanese during WWI. While he was held captive she taught art in Yokohama until his release.

The couple then moved to Valparaiso, Chile where she headed the art department of the Colegio Aleman and taught at the College of the Irish Sisters. In 1926 they settled in San Francisco where both found employment at the Fashion Art School in the Scottish Rite Temple. The Baroness (she seldom referred to her title) was also o