Marie Laurencin is known for her lovely pastel dreamy paintings but she was also able to do something few female artists were able to do. Marie was accepted into the folds of the biggest artists of the time and held her own.
Born on October 31, 1883 she showed very early, against her mothers wishes, a talent for art. At 18 she enrolled in the porcelain painting school at Sévres, much like Renoir started. The next year she joined the Humbert Academy and met fellow artists Georges Braque and Francis Picabia who led her into the art circles of Paris.
Writer, art broker and collector Henri-Pierre Roché met Marie through Braque and was attracted to her art and to her. Roché was a big promoter of female artists including Suzane Valadon and Berthe Morisot. Roché and gallery owner Berthe Weill worked together sharing their art when most ignored them.
Gallery owner Clovis Sagot on Rue Laffitte gave Marie her first solo exhibition where she would meet Picasso, Delauney, Rousseau, Max Jacobs. and poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Marie inspired the struggling writer and served as his muse over their six year relationship. Her first painting she ever sold featured Picasso surrounded by Apollinaire, Marie and Fernande and was purchased by Gertrude Stein.
After Apollinaire was arrested and thought to be involved in the theft of the Mona Lisa, Marie moved on. Things were already rocky between the two at the time but that put an end to it. In one last gesture, Marie painted a 2nd copy of her Apollinaire et Ses Amis. Surrounded by his friends including Marie, Fernande Olivier, Stein, Gillot and Cremnitz. It hung over his bed until his death and today is in the Pompidou.
Spending a brief period in the Cubist and Fauvist movement she later named her style “nymphism”. Staying close to what she liked she used her favorite colors, pink, grey, blue and white and predominantly painted women and girls. As a child she would keep beads and ribbons in her pocket, always gravitating to pretty things.
In 1914 Marie married German Baron Otto von Watjen. Marrying a German at the start of WWI may not have been the ideal situation and the couple were forced to remain in Spain after their honeymoon. As a young girl she spent her days in the Musée du Louvre, copying and learning how to paint from masters including Elisabeth Vigee le Brun. In Spain she would once again hide in the Prado, copying Goya and Greco.
Their marriage didn’t last long and she returned to Paris and into her most productive time. Gallery owner Paul Rosenberg took her on and displayed her on the walls next to Picasso and Bracque and even set up exhibitions of her work in New York.
In the 20’s & 30’s she was commissioned to paint portraits of the Paris elite which she didn’t like. Instead of painting them how they wanted to be seen, she painted them as she saw them. Chanel asked her to paint her and when it was complete she refused to pay her for it. As one that controlled her story and her image that was always seen through a filter she didn’t like the stern look on her face. The painting would end up in the collection of Paul Guillaume and now hangs in the Musée de l’Orangerie today.
Her later years she retired to her house in Meudon with the daughter of her housekeeper that had been with her since the 1920’s. Without an heir or any relatives she adopted her housekeeper's 49 year old daughter, Suzanne Moreau, leaving her everything. On June 8 1956 at 72 years old she died in her apartment off the Champs Mars of a heart attack.
She was buried at Père-Lachaise just steps from Apollinaire. She was wearing a white dress and holding a red rose with a love letter from Apollinaire resting on her heart. After Suzanne’s death much of Marie’s collection went up for auction. Wealthy Japanese taxi magnet Mashiro Takano bought up a vast majority and in 1983 opened the first museum in the world dedicated to a female artist. Sadly it closed in 2011.
Marie’s life story is greatly overshadowed by her many relationships but her art should never be forgotten. The airy dream like pastel paintings of dancing ladies always bring a smile to your face when they are discovered.
Listen to her whole story in this week's newest episode of Paris History Avec a Hemingway on La Vie Creative podcast. #paris #podcast #art