In 1872, she entered Taganrog girl’s high school. After moving to Moscow, she finished her education in the Moscow St. Filaret parochial school for girls and then entered the Moscow Higher Historical and Literary Courses for Women (the courses of Vladimir Guerrier, a famous Russian historian and public figure). There, Chekhov’s sister studied until 1866. 

 
Between autumn 1886 and 1904, Maria was teaching history and geography in a private girl’s high school of RzhEvskaya in Moscow. In the 90-s, she took to painting, studied in Stroganov High School of Art and then in a private art school of Alexandra Khotyaintseva, supervised there by famous painters, ValentIn Serov and KonstantIn Korovin. But the decisive role in selecting her path of life was played by her brother Anton. When it became clear that he was going to be a great writer, Maria devoted herself to the brother, looking after the family and keeping the house. While living in Melikhovo she helped her brother in building schools, providing medical assistance to countrymen, in general labor activities. The writer wrote about his sister in a letter to Alexander Smagin 21 November 1891: “ In our family Maria Pavlovna runs things, you won’t get anywhere without her. I rely on her in everything’. 

Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko wrote:

Maria Pavlovna decided to keep the rooms of his brother untouched: his personal belongings still remain in their place since 1904. In Yalta, she founded a museum, that existed even before the revolution. The fact is confirmed by the guestbook she kept since April 1911. 9 April 1921, the Revolutionary Committee of Yalta issued a protection writ, and since that time on it has been a state museum. Maria was appointed its director and stayed in that position until her last days in January 1957. 

Apart from establishing a Chekhov’s museum in Yalta, Maria took an active part in founding museums in Moscow, and later, in Melikhovo. She donated many items to those new museums, manuscripts (certain letters). And the main literary archive she donated to the State Lenin Library of the USSR on a condition that access to it should be given to Chekhov scholars.

Maria Chekhova died in Yalta at the age of 93.