Marie Laurencin: Setting the Scene

Paris in the 1920s was marked by a revolutionary spirit and artistic freedom. In this environment, Marie Laurencin (1883–1956) established herself as one of the most successful woman artists of the French avant-garde. Emerging from the circle of the Cubists and closely connected to Guillaume Apollinaire, Gertrude Stein, and Pablo Picasso, she developed an abstracted style of figuration in pastel hues. Her work, which focuses almost exclusively on the representation of women, explores femininity and identity as variable, consciously performed roles. Laurencin not only worked as a painter, but…