Marie Laurencin

French (1883-1956)

Born in Paris in 1883, French painter and printmaker Marie Laurencin studied porcelain painting in Sevres and art at the Academie Humbert in Paris. An important figure in the Parisian avant-garde, Laurencin was a member of the circle of Pablo Picasso and Cubists associated with the Section d’Or.

Laurencin exhibited at the Salon des Independants, Barbazanges, P. Rosenberg’s and Salon d’Automne. She became a popular society portrait painter and her sitters included Coco Chanel, Helena Rubinstein, Lady Cunard and Madame Andre Derain. Laurencin also illustrated Andre Gide’s “La Tentative Amoureuse” and Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.”

Laurencin’s works are held in the permanent collections of the Tate Modern, London; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Musee de l’Orangerie, Paris; Pola Museum of Art, Japan and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, among others.