Artist Database

Born in Paris in 1883, Marie Laurencin was a French painter and printmaker. Her initial training was in porcelain painting in Sèvres, followed by training as a painter at Académie Humbert in Paris. Laurencin became an important member of the Parisian avant-garde movement and she exhibited with the Cubists from the Section d’Or at the Salon des Indépendants between 1910 and 1911 and the Salon d'Automne between 1911 and 1912. She attended Natalie Barney’s literary Salon which explored female identity and relations between women, and this would influence her for the rest of her life. Laurencin went into exile in Spain during World War II and returned to Paris in 1948 where she stayed until her death in 1956.

Laurencin was one of the few female Cubist painters but developed her own unique style painting simplified forms of groups of women and animals. On her return to Paris from exile, she continued to explore issues of femininity and female identity, and she became known for her distinctive flowing female figures in soft pastel colours.

Marie Laurencin’s artworks are represented in major public collections worldwide including the Tate in London, Museum of Modern Art in New York and Musée Marie Laurencin in Nagano, Japan.