The Austrian painter Marianne Stokes (née Preindlsberger) was born in Graz in Austria, but she moved to Munich at the age of 19.
In 1880 she went to Paris, where she studied under the French painters Léon Bonnat and Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). In 1882 she had further tuition in the Académie Colarossi. The following year she went to the art colony Pont-Aven together with the Finnish painter Helene Schjerfbeck (1862-1846), and here she met her future husband Adrian Stokes.
It is said to have been P.S. Krøyer who tempted Marianne and Adrian Stokes to visit the art colony in Skagen. Krøyer's portrait of Marianne Stokes is part of the portrait frieze in the Brøndum's dining room at Skagens Museum.