Marie Laurencin

MARIE LAURENCIN (Paris, 1883-1956).
"Feminine intimacy", 1928.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the corner.
Provenance: Private collection. Acquired directly from the artist by the godfather of the present owner, with whom she had a personal relationship. Since then, the work has remained in the same family by hereditary transmission.
Measurements: 48 x 71 cm; 63 x 86 cm (frame).

This painting is a paradigmatic example of the mature period of Marie Laurencin, one of the essential figures in the artistic scene of Paris between the wars. Beyond its unquestionable plastic quality, it is a work of great historical and cultural relevance, reflecting the originality of its language in the context of the Parisian avant-garde.

With his unmistakable lyrical style, Laurencin assimilated the teachings of cubism to transform them into a highly personal aesthetic, recognized for its delicacy and modernity. The work celebrates the friendship and complicity between women, proposing an intimate and autonomous universe, full of lyricism and restrained melancholy.

The figures, idealized as archetypes of a dreamy and sophisticated femininity, embody the aesthetic ideal popularized by Laurencin: an ethereal, elegant and refined beauty, combining innocence and languor with a distinguished charm. The composition is articulated around a harmonious palette of pinks, grays, pale blues and whites, enhanced by the strength of black in looks and clothes, generating a poetic and elegant atmosphere. Although the cubist imprint is perceived in the flattened planes and the simplification of forms, Laurencin softens them with fluid lines and curved rhythms that prioritize design and musicality over strictly realistic representation.

In 1928, the year this piece was made, Laurencin was already an internationally acclaimed artist, admired both by the avant-garde and by European high society, for whom she executed exclusive portraits. After her youthful links with the most radical avant-garde -she was the sentimental companion of Guillaume Apollinaire and close to Picasso and Braque-, at this stage she had consolidated her own language which, without renouncing modernity, was accessible and greatly appreciated by the cultural and social elites. Her art offered a lyrical and feminine vision of the world, in contrast to the harshness of other experimental currents of her time, which assured her a singular place in the history of modern art.

Marie Laurencin.
Painter, engraver and theatrical designer, Laurencin was part of the cubist group linked to the Section d'Or. After starting as a porcelain painter in Sèvres (1901), she studied at the Académie Humbert, where she met Braque, and in 1907 she exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Indépendants. That same year, Picasso introduced her to the Bateau-Lavoir circle and to the environment of Guillaume Apollinaire, with whom she maintained a relationship until 1912.
Although she was initially interested in Fauvism, she soon adopted a formal simplification inspired by Cubism, without ever fully subscribing to this movement. He was also nourished by Persian miniatures and Rococo art. Since 1910 he consolidated a characteristic palette of grays, pinks and pastels, with which he built his own universe, centered on elongated, ethereal and delicate female figures.
Throughout her career, she participated in the main Parisian salons, exhibited individually in 1912 at the Barbazanges gallery -being the first woman to do so- and worked as a portraitist of prominent figures such as Colette, Coco Chanel, Nicole Groult and Helena Rubinstein. She also worked as a set and costume designer for La Comédie Française, the Opéra-Comique, the Ballets Russes and the ballets of Roland Petit.
Her work includes painting, drawing, engraving and book illustration, collaborating with authors such as André Gide, Max Jacob, Saint-John Perse and Lewis Carroll. In 1983, the Marie Laurencin Museum was inaugurated in Nagano (Japan), where more than 500 of the artist's works are housed. Today she is remembered as one of the few women linked to cubism, along with Sonia Delaunay, Marevna and Franciska Clausen, and as the creator of a singular, delicate and profoundly modern style.