Marie Laurencin

1883-1956

Marie Laurencin, intimate of Braque, Picasso, Matisse and Appollinaire, was born in 1883.  She held a celebrated place in the early part of the 20th century during a period when Art exploded with genius.  She lived in the Montmartre District of Paris and became part of the circle revolving around the Steins. Though her early portraits show the imprint of the Fauves and Cubists, her romantic and delicate temperament asserted itself against these schools.

She was prim, conservative and always wore a kitchen apron when she painted. She had a celebrated love affair with Guilliame Appollinaire, great French modern critic, but was never able to marry him because of demands of her domineering mother.  Called the 'muse' by her fellow painters, her works are loved for their fragile beauty.  Though they may be feminine in subject and execution, the distortion of form and the simplicity of expression mark her for a Modern Master.

Girls, pretty girls, were the subject of practically all Laurencin's oils.  She painted girls in all kinds of poses and all had her personal mark, smooth young faces, pale skin and dark eyes.  Her early work was not easily accepted; it showed the influence of Toulouse-Lautrec and of cubism.  World War I took her out of the Paris circle for a while; she married a German painter, Otto von Waetjen, and they were forced to leave France.  They lived in Spain, then she got a divorce and returned to Paris.  In her later years, she became almost a hermit, although mothers with daughters in tow still came to her.  She died in 1956.