At age 21, Sert married her twenty-year-old cousin
Thadée (Tadeusz) Natanson, a Polish émigré and member of a banking family. All were mesmerized by the charm and youth of their hostess Misia. In 1889, Natanson debuted
La Revue Blanche, a periodical committed to nurturing new talent and showcasing the work of
post-Impressionists known as
Les Nabis. Misia Natanson became the muse and symbol of
La Revue blanche, appearing in advertising posters created by Toulouse-Lautrec,
Édouard Vuillard and
Pierre Bonnard. A portrait of her by Renoir is now in the
National Gallery, London. Natanson’s
La Revue blanche, coupled with his political activism, required an influx of capital in amounts he could not supply. Needing a benefactor, he approached
Alfred Edwards, a newspaper magnate, the founder of the foremost newspaper in Paris,
Le Matin. Edwards had become enamored with Misia Natanson and had taken her as his mistress in 1903. He said he would supply money, but only on the condition that Natanson relinquish his wife to him. The couple divorced. The Sert couple ultimately divorced on 28 December 1927. in the artist's studio The Serts’ social set included bohemian elites and the upper levels of society. It was a libertine group, rife with emotional and sexual intrigues—all fueled by drug use and abuse. Misia Sert had an enduring association with couturière
Coco Chanel, whom she had met in 1917 at the home of actress
Cécile Sorel. Sert later provided Chanel with emotional support, after the designer's lover,
Arthur Capel, died on 22 December 1919 in an automobile accident. The two women were said to have had an immediate bond of like souls, and Sert was attracted to Chanel by "her genius, lethal wit, sarcasm and maniacal destructiveness, which intrigued and appalled everyone." Both women were convent educated; their friendship was one of shared interests, confidences and drug use. Sert was generous and supportive to friends in need. For instance, she provided financial assistance to poet
Pierre Reverdy when he needed funds to retreat to a
Benedictine monastery in
Solesmes. She had a long friendship and business association with Russian impresario
Sergei Diaghilev and was involved in all creative aspects of the
Ballets Russes - from friendships with its dancers, to contributing to decisions on costume designs and choreography. Through the years she supplied funds for the ballet company; while its artistic achievements were recognized, it was often on risky financial footing. For instance, on the opening night of the new work
Petroushka, composed by
Igor Stravinsky, she came to the rescue with the 4000 francs needed to prevent
repossession of the costumes. When Diaghilev lay dying in
Venice, she was at his side. After his death in August 1929, she paid for his funeral, honoring the man who had been such an important influence in the world of ballet. During
World War II and the
Nazi occupation of Paris, Sert evaded serious condemnation for supporting the arts and some of the circle which German officials considered suspect. Others of her social set were more overtly allied with the Nazis and the
Vichy government. Among the refugee intellectuals and artists, a number joined the
Resistance. ==Death==