Mary Teissier

Mary Teissier (born Maria Petrovna Perevostchikova; 27 December 1917 – 1 August 1990) was a Ukrainian-French socialite, heiress, interior designer, and art collector. She is best known as the long-time mistress of American millionaire J. Paul Getty, with whom she lived at Sutton Place. When Getty died in 1976, she received the second-largest inheritance out of all of his mistresses. She was married to the Parisian socialite Lucien Teissier, with whom she owned the Villa San Michele in Tuscany. Through her mother, Teissier was a morganatic descendent of Emperor Alexander II and Empress Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. Early life and family Teissier was born Maria Petrovna Perevostchikova in Odesa in 1917 to Petr Ghika-Perevostchikov and Countess Elizabeta Alexeevna Belevskya-Zhukovskya. Teissier's parents later divorced and her mother married the painter Arthur Lourié. Through her mother, Teissier was a morganatic descendant of the House of Romanov and related to multiple Russian and German noble families. Teissier's maternal grandparents were Count Aleksey Belevsky-Zhukovsky, a second cousin of Tsar Nicholas II, and Princess Maria Petrovna Troubetskaya. She was a great-granddaughter of Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia, the son of Tsar Alexander II and Princess Marie of Hesse and by Rhine, and his mistress Alexandra Zhukovskaya, Baroness of Seggiano, the daughter of Vasily Zhukovsky and Elizabeth von Reutern (daughter of Gerhardt Wilhelm von Reutern). Married life