When we were dismantling our old couch I salvaged two old pieces of Masonite and I used them for painting. The boards aren't perfectly square, so Marie is permanently skewed on a rhomboid.
After I finished this lady in purple I thought she looked a little like Augustus John's wife Dorelia Mcneill.
But over the years I realize that she looks a little like something the french painter Marie Laurencin might have done.
Marie Laurencin was one of those Parisian art school girls that I'm so envious of. Born in 1883, Marie attended various art institutes. At the Academie Humbert she met Georges Braque and Georges Lepape. ( I have a pochoir by Lepape). In 1907 she met Picasso and the poet Guillaume Apollinaire. She was Apollinaire's girlfriend until 1913 and while he expounded on art theory and Cubism, Marie's art always maintained an ethereal, dreamy characteristic. It was in 1907 that she first showed her works at the Salon Independants.
Through Picasso and Apollinaire, Marie met many influential acquaintances including Gertrude Stein who was the first to buy one of Marie Laurencin's paintings.
During the First World War, Marie had to leave France with her German husband , because through her marriage she had lost her French citizenship. After they divorced she returned to Paris where she lived the rest of her life and achieved great success as an artist.
Marie Laurencin's art is mainly based on women, or groups of woman - all tender and pastel. While she was associated with the Cubists, the femininity of her work is counter to the masculine Cubism
I have to say she gives me hope because although, I kind of like her stuff, I don't feel she was terribly talented. But like so many people, she was in the right place at the right time. Here's a selection of her work including a portrait of the ever-popular Coco Chanel. I tucked my "Marie" at the bottom for good measure.
