Marie Laurencin

MARIE LAURENCIN (Paris, 1883-1956).
"Feminine intimacy", 1928.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in the upper left corner.
Measurements: 48 x 71 cm; 63 x 86 cm (frame).

This painting constitutes a paradigmatic example of the period of maturity of Marie Laurencin, an essential figure in the artistic scene of Paris between the wars. Beyond its aesthetic quality, this work constitutes a testimony of great historical and cultural value, illustrating the originality of her artistic language within the context of the Parisian avant-garde. With his unmistakable lyrical style, Laurencin fuses the lessons of cubism with a highly personal aesthetic, recognized for its delicacy and modernity. The work celebrates the friendship and complicity between women, proposing a closed, intimate and self-sufficient universe, full of lyricism and contained melancholy. The female figures, idealized as archetypes of a dreamy and sophisticated femininity, embody the aesthetic ideal that Laurencin popularized: an ethereal, elegant and refined beauty, combining innocence and languor with a distinguished charm. The composition is supported by a harmonious palette of pinks, grays, pale blues and whites, accentuated by the intense black of looks and costume details, creating an ethereal and elegant atmosphere. The cubist influence is perceptible in the flattened planes and the simplification of forms, but Laurencin softens any rigidity through fluid lines and curved rhythms that prioritize design and harmony over strictly realistic representation.

In 1928, when the work in question was executed, Laurencin was already an internationally acclaimed artist, appreciated both by the avant-garde and by European high society, for whom she painted exclusive portraits. Although in her youth she was linked to the more radical avant-garde (she was the partner of the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and close to Picasso and Braque), by this point she had developed a language of her own that, while remaining modern, was accessible and highly appreciated by high society, for whom she produced numerous portraits. Her art offered a lyrical and elegantly feminine vision of the world that contrasted with the most radical, harsh and experimental currents of her time, thus consolidating her privileged place in the history of modern art.

French painter, engraver and theatrical designer of the cubist group linked to the Section d'Or group. Marie Laurencin began as a porcelain painter in Sèvres in 1901. She would later move to Pays to take drawing classes at the Paris municipal art school and at the Académie Humbert (1903-1904), where she met Georges Braque. She exhibited for the first time in 1907 at the Salon des Indépendants, after which the art dealer Clovis Sagot introduced her to Pablo Picasso3 and the group of artists of the Bateau-Lavoir de Montmartre. That same year, Picasso introduced her to Guillaume Apollinaire, with whom she would maintain a relationship that would last until 1912 and in which they both influenced each other artistically and intellectually. Although she was initially interested in Fovism, Marie Laurencin began to simplify the forms in her painting influenced by Cubism, although she never ascribed to this stylistic current.4 She was also inspired by Persian miniatures and Rococo art.1 From 1910 her most used tones would be grays, pinks and other pastels.2 She took part in group exhibitions at the Salon des Indépendants (1910-1911) and the Salon d'Automne (1911-1912). In 1912 she held her second major exhibition at the Barbazanges Gallery, which was the first solo exhibition by a woman artist. Associated with Sonia and Robert Delaunay thanks to a meeting organized by Francis Picabia, Marie Laurencin composed several poems for art magazines during the year 1917. In 1920, she had another exhibition at the gallery of P. Rosenberg. In 1921, after separating from her husband, she returned permanently to Paris where Paul Guillaume, whom she met thanks to Apollinaire, served as her art dealer. At that time Marie Laurencin began to draw ethereal female figures again in pastel tones. Her pictorial style included the use of fluid and soft colors, the simplification of the composition and the predilection for elongated female forms that allowed her to occupy a privileged place in the Paris of the 1920s. She illustrated works by André Gide, Max Jacob, Saint-John Perse, Marcel Jouhandeau, Jean Paulhan and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, among others. She became the official portraitist of the world of women's styling, portraying women such as Nicole Groult, Helena Rubinstein, Colette and Coco Chanel. From 1920, Marie Laurencin also worked as a decorator and costume designer for the ballet The Hinds (1924), by Francis Poulenc, and also for the companies of the Opéra-Comique, the Ballets Russes, La Comédie Française and the ballets of Roland Petit at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées. In the 1930s, due to the economic crisis resulting from the Great Depression, Marie Laurencin worked as an art teacher in a private academy. She lived in Paris until her death in 1956. In 1983, the Marie Laurencin Museum in Nagano, Japan, which houses more than 500 of the artist's works, was opened to the public. Laurecin's works include paintings, watercolors, drawings and prints. Although she did not consider herself a cubist, today she is known as one of the few women who integrated this movement, among them Sonia Delaunay, Marevna Vorobev and Franciska Clausen.