Marie Laurencin

Marie Laurencin was an important figure in the Parisian avant-garde circle associated with the Cubist movement and the Section d’Or. Born in 1883 in Paris, France, Laurencin — like Pierre-Augste Renior — studied porcelain painting in Sèvres early in her career. She returned to Paris and later enrolled in the Académie Humbert to focus on oil painting.

Laurencin was active in the avant-garde scene in Paris and collaborated with Pablo Picasso at a time few women were permitted in his inner circle. Through him, Laurencin met and became the love of the poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Their relationship not only inspired Laurencin’s work but also positioned her within the heart of the avant-garde movement. Originally influenced by the Fauves, she simplified her forms through close interactions with Cubist painters such as Picasso and Georges Braque. During the first decade of the 20th century, Laurencin exhibited alongside other Cubists the likes of Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Robert Delaunay, Henri le Fauconnier and Francis Picabia, including at the first Cubish exhibition in Spain in 1912.

Although she never fully embraced Cubism’s geometric abstraction, she incorporated some of its elements into her own style, blending them with a lyrical, almost dreamlike quality. Throughout her career, Laurencin was preoccupied with exploring the themes of femininity and modes of representing women and their roles in society.

In 1914 Laurencin married German painter Baron Otto van Wätjen, and because of their marriage, she automatically lost her French citizenship. During World War I, Laurencin left France in exile for Spain with her husband and they subsequently moved to Düsseldorf. Laurencin returned to Paris in the 1920s following her divorce, which saw her aesthetic develop into what is now known as her signature style. The muted colours and Cubist geometry gave way to light, pastel tones and willowy, undulating compositions.

Laurencin was a society fixture, a sought-after portraitist who welcomed sitters including Coco Chanel and Jean Cocteau. Her works were exhibited widely during her lifetime. Marie Laurencin died in Paris in 1956. Today, her works belong in the collections of a number of major institutions. The Marie Laurencin Museum in Nagano, Japan, was built in 1983 to house Japanese collector Masahiro Takano’s extensive collection of her paintings. It was the first museum in the world dedicated to a single female painter. In 2010 Christie’s sold her painting Femme aux tulipes (1936) for US$602,500, setting a world auction record for the artist.