The emergence of salons is considered by sociologists as a key aspect of the revolution from which modern culture was to arise. Proust describes, for instance, the salon of Mme Verdurin. Salons were something more than merely a meeting place for the ‘society’. Today we would call them institutions operating in the art market. It was in salons that new works were commented upon, artists judged, and leading trends in music were established. Salons run by women played a special role in the 19th century. One of these was the Petersburg salon maintained in 1827–31 by the famous Polish artist Maria Szymanowska, official court pianist to the Tsarinas Maria Feodorovna and Yelisaveta Alexeievna of Russia. Three years after Maria Szymanowska’s death (or a bit earlier) another woman artist was born in Mlawa (Mazovia region). It was Tekla Badarzewska, author of more than a dozen piano miniatures, who gained fame with her Maiden’s Prayer, published in Wars...