Marie Laurencin, 1883-1956
By Romana Bardetti
Women with a Dove, 1919, oil on canvas, Musée National d’Art Moderne Centre Pompidou
During a period dominated by virile cubist forms and industrial advancements as aesthetic objects, French painter Marie Laurencin offered a fresh and liberating style where women were spotlighted as a reason to be alive. Laurencin, whilst primarily a painter, also thrived in printmaking, poetry and book illustrations that highlighted her sapphic identity and embraced otherness. Her paintings are infused with mysteries and, as The Barnes Foundation underlines, “low-key erotic sensuality” that is communicated in a subtle, feminine manner.
Laurencin’s Women with a Dove (Femmes à la Colombe, 1919) not only demonstrates her skills as an artist but also represents her queer identity. The image depicts Laurencin holding a book whilst her lover, Nicole Groult, lovingly rests her chin on the artist’s shoulder. The use of colour is striking as Laurencin portrays herself in various shades of grey, whilst Groult is afforded a lively, pale, yet polychromatic figure. Laurencin animates Groult’s white skin with the addition of a soft pink pigment to her cheeks and lips, intriguingly the same shade as the bow tied around the artist’s waist. Additionally, Groult’s emerald dress and feathered accessories increase the contrast between the two women, showcasing an artist in her element, accompanied by the fashion designer and lover who acts as her muse. This message of harmony is wonderfully captured by the white dove that represents Laurencin and Groult’s sapphic love; the latter’s poetry described the artist’s “eyes, breasts and lips as birds.” Their intimacy is discernible.
Laurencin’s life can be partially summed up in this dual portrait. Passionate yet hidden, together yet isolated, traditional yet revolutionary. Despite limited freedom in early twentieth-century France, Laurencin was pressured to mask her queer identity, “[hiding] in plain sight”. This is apparent in her impulsive marriage to German painter, Otto von Wätjen which led to their refuge in Spain (Laurencin adopted his German nationality in a time of war), leaving her increasingly isolated. At this time as well, her former lover, Guillaume Apollinaire, passed away from the Spanish Flu, amplifying her seclusion and poorly informing her decisions. In Women with a Dove (1919), her loneliness is nearly visible, yet is rejected by the presence of Groult as a calming, considerate and life-giving force. Here, Laurencin employs women as her “primary subject matter” and restores their identities without treating them like objects. This respect for womankind also demonstrates her revolutionary approach to artmaking and directly combats certain male colleagues, such as Picasso and Braque. In this respect, Laurencin “had her own unique aesthetic” that set her apart from the artists that surrounded her, allowing her to experiment with form, colour and medium in an innovative manner.
Marie Laurencin’s life was turbulent and fulfilling. She created art that represented her masked identity, leaving an oeuvre which thus acts as a historical record of queer individuals in twentieth-century Paris. Although her story is far more nuanced than can be examined here, her dual portrait, Women with a Dove (1919), can encapsulate much of her sexuality and the societal expectations that weighed her down and inspired subversion.
Bibliography
Horn, Olivia. “Marie Laurencin’s Queer, Feminine Utopias are Gaining Renewed Recognition”. Artsy. November, 30, 2023. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-marie-laurencins-queer-feminine-utopias-gaining-renewed-recognition.
MacFadden, K.A. “The Barnes Foundation presents Marie Laurencin: Sapphic Paris”. Broad Street Review. October, 31, 2023. https://www.broadstreetreview.com/reviews/the-barnes-foundation-presents-marie-laurencin-sapphic-paris#:~:text=After%20her%20mother%20died%20and,with%20isolation%20and%20existential%20feeling.
“Marie Laurencin”. Tate. Accessed October, 22, 2024. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/marie-laurencin-1472.
““No mere Fauvette” – The art of Marie Laurencin”. Pallant House Gallery. February, 9, 2021. https://pallant.org.uk/no-mere-fauvette-the-art-of-marie-laurencin/#:~:text=Although%20we%20can%20see%20the,colour%20palette%20and%20curvilinear%20forms.
Palumbo, Jacqui. “The 1920s painter who hid sapphic symbols in her portraits”. CNN. January, 10, 2024. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/10/style/marie-laurencin-untold-art-history/index.html.