Marie Laurencin (1883-1956), Girl with a Dog

Marie Laurencin (1883-1956), Girl with a Dog
color lithograph on paper
sheet dimensions: 55 x 46 cm, 94.5 x 80.5 cm (with frame)
signed in pencil, at the bottom: Marie Laurencin
edition: 112/150

The painting depicts a young woman with delicate, almost ethereal features, accompanied by a dog. The work is maintained in Marie Laurencin's characteristic "feminine style," celebrating delicacy in contrast to the austerity of the masculine avant-garde of the time. Pastels - blues, pinks, subtle grays and broken white - dominate, and the artist forgoes sharp contrasts in favor of soft tonal transitions. The woman's figure is adorned with pearls and a decorative hat with a blue ribbon, and her melancholic and absent-minded gaze gives the work a dreamy, dreamlike quality. In terms of style, the work is a unique combination of simplified Cubist forms with the subtlety and grace of Rococo, creating the artist's own recognizable visual language.

Marie Laurencin (1883-1956), French painter and printmaker. She was the first woman to paint in the Cubist style. Known for her paintings of ethereal female figures. Close to Braque, Picasso, Matisse and Appollinaire. She held a celebrated place in the early 20th century at a time when art was exploding with genius. She lived in the Montmartre district of Paris and became part of the circle centered around the Steins. Although her early portraits show the stigma of the Fauves and Cubists, her romantic and gentle temperament defied these schools.
She was primitive, conservative and always wore a kitchen apron when she painted. She had a famous affair with Guilliam Appollinaire, the great French contemporary critic.