Marianna (Mariamna) Verevkina, a student of Repin and known as the "Russian Rembrandt," was born on August 29, 1860, in Tula. Her grandfather, Pyotr Mikhailovich Daragan, was the governor of the city, and her grandmother, Anna Mikhailovna Daragan (née Balugyansky), was known as a children's writer. Marianna's mother, Elizaveta Petrovna Verevkina (née Daragan), was an artist. Her father, General Vladimir Nikolaevich Verevkin, participated in the Crimean and Russo-Turkish wars.

Marianna began drawing at the age of 14 when she was ill, and her early works were inspired by visions caused by high fever. Her mother supported her passion, and Verevkina often recalled this in her diary "Letters to an Unknown."

After the revolution, she lived in Munich and Switzerland. In 1924, Verevkina became one of the founders of the association "Big Dipper" in Ascona, where artists who frequently visited the city gathered. In 1922, together with Swiss artist Ernst Kemper, she opened a small museum of modern art in Ascona. Thanks to her connections, she asked familiar artists to donate one work to the museum, repeating the experience of Alexei Bogolyubov, who created the Radishchev Museum in Saratov, but without the support of influential organizations.

The museum's first exhibition took place at the Pankaldi villa in Ascona, where it is still located today. The museum's collection includes works donated by Alexei Yavlensky, Paul Klee, and other artists, as well as the largest collection of works by Marianna Verevkina in the world.