Marie Laurencin (31 October 1883 – 8 June 1956) was a French painter and printmaker. She became an important figure in the Parisian

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: Theoretica ...

as a member of the Cubists associated with the Section d'Or.

Biography

Laurencin was born in Paris, where she was raised by her mother and lived much of her life. At 18, she studied

porcelain painting China painting, or porcelain painting, is the decoration of glazed porcelain objects such as plates, bowls, vases or statues. The body of the object may be hard-paste porcelain, developed in China in the 7th or 8th century, or soft-paste porcel ...

in Sèvres. She then returned to Paris and continued her art education at the Académie Humbert, where she changed her focus to

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...

. During the early years of the 20th century, Laurencin was an important figure in the Parisian

. A member of both the circle of

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, and Cubists associated with the Section d'Or, such as

Jean Metzinger Jean Dominique Antony Metzinger (; 24 June 1883 – 3 November 1956) was a major 20th-century French painter, theorist, writer, critic and poet, who along with Albert Gleizes wrote the first theoretical work on Cubism. His earliest works, from 1 ...

, Albert Gleizes,

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 ...

, Henri le Fauconnier and

Francis Picabia Francis Picabia (: born Francis-Marie Martinez de Picabia; 22January 1879 – 30November 1953) was a French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist. After experimenting with Impressionism and Pointillism, Picabia became associated with Cubism ...

, exhibiting with them at the

Salon des Indépendants Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (Pa ...

(1910-1911) and the

Salon d'Automne The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The ...

(1911-1912), and Galeries Dalmau (1912) at the first Cubist exhibition in Spain. She became romantically involved with the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and has often been identified as his muse. In addition, Laurencin had important connections to the

salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon ( ...

of the American

expatriate An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...

and lesbian writer

Natalie Clifford Barney Natalie Clifford Barney (October 31, 1876 – February 2, 1972) was an American writer who hosted a literary salon at her home in Paris that brought together French and international writers. She influenced other authors through her salon and al ...

. She had relationships with men and women, and her art reflected her life, her "balletic wraiths" and "sidesaddle Amazons" providing the art world with her brand of "queer femme with a Gallic twist." During the First World War, Laurencin left France for exile in Spain with her German-born husband, Baron Otto von Waëtjen, since through her marriage she had automatically lost her French citizenship. The couple subsequently lived together briefly in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

. She was greatly affected by her separation from the French capital, the unrivaled center of artistic creativity. After they divorced in 1920, she returned to Paris, where she achieved financial success as an artist until the economic depression of the 1930s. During the 1930s she worked as an art instructor at a private school. She lived in Paris until her death.

Work

Laurencin's works include paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints. She is known as one of the few female Cubist painters, with

Sonia Delaunay Sonia Delaunay (13 November 1885 – 5 December 1979) was a French artist, who spent most of her working life in Paris. She was born in Odessa (then part of Russian Empire), and formally trained in Russian Empire and Germany before moving to Fr ...

, Marie Vorobieff, and Franciska Clausen. While her work shows the influence of Cubist painters

and Georges Braque, who was her close friend, she developed a unique approach to

abstraction Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or " concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abst ...

which often centered on the representation of groups of women and animals. Her work lies outside the bounds of Cubist norms in her pursuit of a specifically feminine aesthetic by her use of pastel colors and curvilinear forms. Originally influenced by

Fauvism Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' (French language, French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the Representation (arts), repr ...

, she simplified her forms through the influence of the Cubist painters. From 1910, her palette consisted mainly of grey, pink and pastel tones. Her distinctive style developed upon her return to Paris in the 1920s post exile. The muted colours and the geometric patterns inherited from Cubism were replaced by light tones and undulating compositions. Her signature motif is marked by willowy, ethereal female figures, and a palette of soft pastel colours, evoking an enchanted world. Laurencin continued to explore themes of femininity and what she considered to be feminine modes of representation until her death. Her works include paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints. File:Marie Laurencin, 1910-11, Les jeunes filles, Jeune Femmes (Young Girls), oil on canvas, 115 x 146 cm, Moderna Museet, Stockholm.jpg, 1910-11, ''Les jeunes filles (Jeune Femmes, Young Girls)'', oil on canvas, 115 x 146 cm. Exhibited

, 1911, Moderna Museet, Stockholm File:Marie Laurencin, 1911, Die Jungen Damen, Les jeunes femmes, The young women.jpg, 1911, ''La Toilette des jeunes filles (Die Jungen Damen)'', black and white photograph. Exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show, New York, Chicago and Boston File:Marie Laurencin, Femme à l'éventail, Reproduced in Du "Cubisme", 1912.jpg, 1912, ''Femme à l'éventail (Woman with a Fan)'', black and white photograph published in Albert Gleizes,

, '' Du "Cubisme"'', Edition Figuière, Paris, 1912 File:Marie Laurencin, 1913, Le Bal élégant, La Danse à la campagne..jpg, 1913, ''Le Bal élégant, La Danse à la campagne'' File:Marie Laurencin, 1921, Portrait de Jean Cocteau.jpg, 1921, ''Portrait de Jean Cocteau''

Collections

Laurencin's artistic accomplishments are seen in collections around the world. On the 100th anniversary of her birth in 1983, the Musée Marie Laurencin opened in Nagano, Japan. To date, the Musée Marie Laurencin is the only museum in the world that solely contains the art of a female painter. Founder Masahiro Takano was enamored with Laurencin's sensual and lyrical worldview, and the museum holds over 600 art pieces by her. Laurencin's work is also found in The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the

Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the larges ...

in St. Petersburg, and the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in London. Her work is also shown in the permanent collection of the

Musée de l'Orangerie The Musée de l'Orangerie ( en, Orangery Museum) is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings located in the west corner of the Tuileries Garden next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The museum is most famous as th ...

gallery in Paris, France, housing some of her most famous pieces.

Notes

References

* Birnbaum, Paula J. ''Women Artists in Interwar France: Framing Femininities'', Aldershot, Ashgate, 2011. * Gere, Charlotte. ''Marie Laurencin'', London - Paris, Flammarion, 1977 * Groult, Flora. ''Marie Laurencin'', Paris, Mercure de France, 1987 * Kahn, Elizabeth Louise. "Marie Laurencin: Une Femme Inadaptée" in ''Feminist Histories of Art'' Ashgate Publishing, 2003. * Marchesseau, Daniel. ''Marie Laurencin'', Tokyo, éd. Kyuryudo & Paris, Hazan, 1981 * Marchesseau, Daniel. ''Marie Laurencin, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre gravé'', Tokyo, éd. Kyuryudo, 1981 * Marchesseau, Daniel. ''Marie Laurencin, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre peint'', 2 vol. Tokyo, éd. Musée Marie Laurencin, 1985 & 1999 * Marchesseau, Daniel. ''Marie Laurencin, Cent Œuvres du musée Marie Laurencin'', Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 1993 * Marchesseau, Daniel, ''Marie Laurencin'', Paris, Musée Marmottan Monet / Hazan, 2013 * * Pierre, José. ''Marie Laurencin'', Paris, France-Loisirs, 1988 * * * ;Archives * Fonds Marie Laurencin, Bibliothèque littéraire Jacques Doucet, Université de Paris

External links

*
Marie Laurencin Bio
- Findlay Galleries
Marielaurencin.com

Japan.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laurencin, Marie 1883 births 1956 deaths French women painters 20th-century engravers Artists from Paris French engravers French women printmakers Bisexual women Bisexual artists LGBT artists from France Modern painters Modern printmakers Cubist artists Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery 20th-century French women artists 20th-century French printmakers Muses Women engravers