Marie Laurencin

Biography of Marie Laurencin

Marie Laurencin was born in October 1885 in Paris.
In a world dominated by men (perhaps even more pronounced in the Arts and Letters), this young woman who writes and paints before her twentieth year is a clear exception. Yet Marie Laurencin does not fight, she simply exists!

In 1908, she meets Guillaume Apollinaire, whom she falls in love with, and with him the small world of the "Bateau-Lavoir," the wooden building on Rue Ravignan in Paris where Picasso, Braque, Apollinaire, Gertrude Stein, and Kahnweiler live and work.

Later nicknamed the "Lady of Cubism," she brings an impressive touch of femininity to this roaring male milieu, and although she participates in this vibrant era of creation, she remains an observer, often with an amused gaze.

In 1912, she breaks up with Apollinaire, who writes for the occasion, "Open that door where I knock in tears."

In 1913, she meets Baron Otto Van Wätjen, who becomes her husband the following year; a year in which she exhibits at the Sturm Gallery in Berlin alongside Picasso, Braque, Delaunay, and Léger.

Marie Laurencin lithography: Girls with Guitar
During the war, she goes into exile in Spain with her husband until 1920. During this period, she writes for Fransisco Picabia's art magazine. But this exile is marked, in 1918, by the death of Apollinaire, which plunges her into a grief as deep as their love had been great.

In the years following her return to Paris and her divorce (in 1921), she designs sets for theater and opera, notably with Cocteau and Roland Petit.

She continued to paint, always asserting her style of softness and femininity, and to write until her death on June 6, 1956. She is buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris.

According to her last wishes, she was buried wearing a white dress, holding a rose in one hand and a love letter from Apollinaire in the other...

(c) Natacha PELLETIER for PASSION ESTAMPES