With her filigree, almost timeless style, characterised by finely curved contours and airy colouring, Marie Laurencin achieved not only an elegant balancing act between Cubism and Fauvism, but also the breakthrough as one of the few female artists of her time.
(...) Continue readingMarie Laurencin – First porcelain painter, then artist on the Montmartre
Marie Laurencin was born in Paris on 31 October 1883. As illegitimate child of the tax auditor Alfred-Stanislas Toulet, who paid her little interest, her biography was mortgage-laden from the start. At the instigation of her mother Mélanie-Pauline Laurencin, Marie went to Sèvres at the age of 18 to train as a porcelain painter at the manufactory. Her great artistic talent was recognised early on and led her subsequently to acceptance at the Parisian Académie Humbert. Georges Braque also studied there at this time, and he introduced Marie Laurencin to Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, the latter becoming her friend, patron, and lover. Although, in keeping with the conventions of the time, she was often referred to as his muse, she soon made a name for herself as an artist in her own right. Alongside Sonia Delaunay and Suzanne Valadon, she was one of the few women who were able to establish themselves in male-dominated Montmartre.
An individual style between Cubism and Fauvism
Marie Laurencin held her first solo exhibition in 1908 in the gallery of the art dealer Berthe Weill, but had already taken part in an exhibition of the Salon des Indépendants the year before. At Apollinaire’s side, she moved in the important circles of the Paris art scene, with Henri Rousseau portraying the couple in his famous work La Muse inspirant le Poète. Once the American art dealer Gertrude Stein acquired a version of the painting Apollinaire et ses amis, Marie Laurencin finally belonged to the established avant-garde. Despite this, the artist always kept a certain distance, not turning entirely to either Fauvism or Cubism, which provoked Jean Cocteau to friendly derision. Auguste Rodin thought of Laurencin as a ‘Fauvette’, but she actually pursued her own style. She primarily depicted women, tall and slim, painted in curving lines, with almond-shaped eyes and oval faces. The representational depictions, per se, are more or less close to abstraction.
Poet, stage designer and book illustrator
In 1912, Marie Laurencin met the German writer Hanns Heinz Ewers, with whom she was in a relationship for many years; it did not prevent her, however, from marrying the German painter Otto von Wätjen in 1914. Laurencin temporarily took German citizenship, but therefore had to flee to Spain with the outbreak of the First World War. During the war years, she published the Dadaist magazine 391 together with Arthur Cravan, Albert Gleizes and Francis Picabia, to which Laurencin contributed her own poems. From the mid-1920s, the artist also designed stage sets and book illustrations, including Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
Marie Laurencin died on 8 June 1956 in her birth and hometown of Paris. According to her wishes, she was buried in a white dress with a rose in her hand and a love letter from Apollianire over her heart. On the occasion of her 100th birthday, a museum dedicated to her was opened in Nagano in Japan, located in Tokyo since 2017, presenting over 600 works by the artist
Marie Laurencin - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
