Lou Albert-Lasard (1885 in
Metz
Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand E ...
– July 1969 in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
)
was an
Expressionist
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
.
She was born in 1885 in Metz (then part of Germany) to a Jewish banking family. From 1908 until 1914, she studied art in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
, where she and her sister,
Ilse Heller-Lazard lived, and then in Paris.
In 1909, she married Eugene Albert,
[ a chemist 30 years her senior, (1856–1929) and had a daughter, Ingo de Croux-Albert (1911–1997). Separating from her husband, she studied with the artist ]Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...
. She also had connections with the Belgian avant-garde magazine "Het Overzicht
''Het Overzicht'' (Dutch: ''the Survey'') was a Dutch language literary magazine published in Antwerp, Belgium, between 1921 and 1925. Until its cessation in 1925 it was the major avant-garde magazine in the country and published a total of 24 i ...
", which was directed by Michel Seuphor
Fernand Berckelaers (10 March 1901, in Borgerhout – 12 February 1999, in Paris), pseudonym Michel Seuphor ( anagram of Orpheus), was a Belgian painter.
Seuphor established a literary magazine, ''Het Overzicht'', in Antwerp in 1921. He moved in ...
and Jozef Peeters
Jozef Peeters (1895–1960) was a Belgian painter, engraver and graphic artist.
In 1913, Jozef Peeters attended for a short time the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts, but was mainly interested by his own experiments. In 1914 he started paintin ...
.
In 1914–1916, while still legally married, she had an affair with German-language poet Rainer Maria Rilke
René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogni ...
. She lived with Rilke from 1914 until 1916 in Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, and moved in an artist circle that included, among others, Romain Rolland
Romain Rolland (; 29 January 1866 – 30 December 1944) was a French dramatist, novelist, essayist, art historian and Mysticism, mystic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1915 "as a tribute to the lofty idealism of his literary pro ...
, Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig (; ; 28 November 1881 – 22 February 1942) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist, and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most widely translated and popular write ...
, Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
, and Oskar Kokoschka
Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright, and teacher best known for his intense Expressionism, expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the ...
. After breaking up with Rilke, she lived in Switzerland.
After 12 years in Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, she moved to Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and joined an avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
artist group known as the Novembergruppe
The November Group (german: Novembergruppe) was a group of German expressionist artists and architects. Formed on 3 December 1918, they took their name from the month of the German Revolution.
The group was led by Max Pechstein and César Klein ...
. Her work consisted mainly of drawings and etchings of her friends. In 1928, she returned to Paris and was part of the Montparnasse art society. She befriended Henri Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...
, Alberto Giacometti
Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker. Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown Borgonovo to see his family and ...
, and Robert Delaunay
Robert Delaunay (12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, co-founded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstra ...
.
She traveled with her daughter to North Africa, India, Tibet, Cambodia and other countries. Drawings and watercolors from these travels were shown in 1939.
In May 1940, she and her daughter were interned at Gurs
Gurs is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.
History
Gurs was the site of the Gurs internment camp. Nothing remains of the camp; after World War II, a forest was planted on the site where it stood.
Geogr ...
in southwestern France,[ but were later released. While imprisoned, she painted and drew portraits of fellow prisoners and ]camp
Camp may refer to:
Outdoor accommodation and recreation
* Campsite or campground, a recreational outdoor sleeping and eating site
* a temporary settlement for nomads
* Camp, a term used in New England, Northern Ontario and New Brunswick to descri ...
scenes. Several of her works signed done in Gurs (signed "Mabull" which in French slang means crazy) are included in the art collection of Beit Lohamei Haghetaot ( The Ghetto Fighters' House Museum).
References
1885 births
1969 deaths
French women painters
20th-century French painters
20th-century French women artists
19th-century French women artists
Expressionist painters
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