The convinced bachelor Brancusi had an affair with the Hungarian painter Margit Pogány, which later turned into a friendship. Constantin Brancusi was extremely restrained in his choice of subjects, but he always achieved a new effect by using different materials and elaborations. Characteristic of Brancusi's work is the great attention paid to the plinth, which increasingly became part of the sculpture and thus of the art. Brancusi was deeply impressed by the beauty of the machines, whose technology was advancing more and more in his time. He set his ambition on reaching and surpassing this standard in his art. Brancusi, still a Romanian citizen, spent the First World War in Paris, where he made his studio available to the Red Cross and collected warm clothing for the soldiers. He also supported a charity exhibition at the Bernheim-Jeune Gallery, the proceeds of which went to Polish war victims. In 1920, his sculpture "Princesse X" caused a minor scandal because the director in charge of the Salon des Indépendants refused to allow it to be exhibited due to its resemblance to a phallus. Brancusi made a great impression on Man Ray, whose works of art he photographed with such skill for study purposes that the American artist wanted to grant him the sole right to take further photographs. Constantin Brancusi preferred to present his works in his own studio, a temple of art all in white; the artist was suspicious and rather dismissive of exhibitions in museums and galleries. To pay tribute to this idiosyncrasy, his works of art were to be presented in the studio rooms even after the death of their creator - but because the houses were demolished, this plan had to be abandoned and the objects largely ended up where Brancusi himself did not want to see them: in museums and art halls. Constantin Brancusi died in Paris on 16 March 1957.