SYMHC Classics: Marie Laurencin

Summary

Podcast Summary: Stuff You Missed in History Class – Classics: Marie Laurencin

Release Date: March 7, 2026
Hosts: Tracy V. Wilson & Holly Fry

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Episode Overview

This episode delves into the life and legacy of Marie Laurencin, a prominent but often overlooked figure of the early 20th-century Parisian art world. Laurencin, known for her ethereal and unmistakably feminine palette, played a significant role in modern art but saw her reputation fade after her death. Holly and Tracy explore Laurencin’s artistic influences, relationships with avant-garde contemporaries, and the challenges she faced both in life and in how art historians have since considered her work.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Opening Context & Inspiration

[03:14] – Tracy shares her inspiration for the episode, rooted in her encounter with Laurencin's paintings at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris. She notes Laurencin’s diminished fame outside France and challenges in accessing her personal papers due to censorship and restrictions.
Quote:

“She produced a lot of work and she was really well known and internationally sought after in her time. But that is less true today. It is especially less true outside of France.” — Tracy V. Wilson [05:07]

Early Life and Upbringing

[06:54] – Laurencin was born in Paris on October 31, 1883, to an unmarried couple. Her father was absent and did not acknowledge her until late in her life; her mother, Pauline, was a strict seamstress who fostered a cultured home.

• Laurencin’s exposure to the arts was rooted in museum visits and books
• Despite her mother’s hopes for her to become a teacher, Laurencin did poorly at school (including art), but was drawn to Impressionism and other modern movements.
• She wrote poetry under the pseudonym "Louise Lalanne"

Early Artistic Growth

[08:55] – Facing limited opportunities, Laurencin began porcelain painting at the Sèvres factory, despite being extremely nearsighted and relying on a lorgnette.
[09:34] – She became a regular at Nathalie Barney's salon, an LGBTQ-friendly and woman-centered Parisian intellectual hub, developing connections crucial to her art and identity.
Quote:

“Barney was also unapologetically publicly lesbian at a time when homosexuality was really heavily stigmatized.” — Tracy V. Wilson [09:39]

Entering the Avant-Garde

[11:24] – Laurencin shifted her focus to traditional art studies and became part of Paris’s pioneering circles, befriending Georges Braque, Picasso, and eventually the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, with whom she developed a passionate and creatively influential romance.
Quote:

“Apollinaire said Laurencin invented poetry for him and he described her as his feminine counterpart.” — Holly Fry [13:02]

Laurencin as Artist, Not Just Muse

[13:29] – Tracy clarifies that Laurencin wasn’t just a muse for Apollinaire; both artists influenced each other deeply during their six-year relationship.

• Self-portraiture was frequent in Laurencin’s early work (over 36 self-portraits in her lifetime)

Establishing Herself in Modern Art

[19:20] – Laurencin mingled with Paris’s leading modernists at salons and studios but wasn’t always embraced; some peers doubted her talent, attributing her success to relationships.
Quote:

“Both Stein and Olivier wrote derisive accounts of an incident in which Lorencin was drunk at a party... Stein implied that Lorencin didn’t really fit in with the rest of the community either.” — Tracy V. Wilson [20:01]

Major Exhibitions and Artistic Identity

[21:10] – Her debut at the Salon des Indépendants (1907), sale to Gertrude Stein (1908), and creation of major group portraits established Laurencin’s presence.

• While called “Our Lady of Cubism,” Laurencin didn’t identify as a Cubist and felt her art embarrassed her more boundary-pushing peers.

War, Exile, and Personal Struggles

[25:12] – Her marriage to Otto van Vetten and exile to Spain during WWI isolated her, but she reconnected with the Dadaists and began a significant relationship with Nicole Groult.

• Her style shifted: less brown, more of her signature pastels and themes centered on women and animals.
• She experienced depression and painted themes of imprisonment in her wartime work, e.g., "The Prisoner" [27:05]

Return to France and Artistic Prime

[27:41] – Laurencin returned to France in 1921, recovering from illness and finding financial and artistic success. Represented by Paul Rosenberg, her popularity peaked from 1921–1937 with exhibitions across Paris, London, and New York.
Quote:

“Why should I paint dead fish, onions and beer glasses? Girls are so much prettier.” — Marie Laurencin (quoted by Holly Fry) [28:28]
"She can paint a girl with eyes like a doe and a doe with eyes like a girl." — Art critic, NYT obituary [28:39]

Portraiture, Set and Costume Design, Illustrations

[28:46 – 31:09]

• Laurencin became selective, charging higher prices to men and even higher to brunettes than blondes.
• Painted Coco Chanel, who refused to pay because it didn’t resemble her. Laurencin kept the portrait. [29:33–29:52]
• Designed for Ballets Russes and the Comédie Française; illustrated Alice in Wonderland, Katherine Mansfield, and Dumas' Camille.

Later Life and Legacy

[31:37] – Her career slowed after 1937, possibly due to vision loss.
WWII and Controversy
[36:34–37:55] – During German occupation, Laurencin’s home was requisitioned and some art was looted or labeled degenerate. She had tangled, sometimes contradictory relationships with collaborators and the Vichy regime, but also tried to save her friend Max Jacob from the Nazis (unsuccessfully).

Post-War Years

[37:55] – Laurencin was briefly arrested in post-war purges but released and exonerated.

• Her later years were marked by isolation and a close relationship with Suzanne Moreau, whom she eventually adopted.

Final Works and Passing

[38:36] – Laurencin illustrated Sappho's poetry in 1950, shifting stylistically to black and white.
[39:00] – Laurencin died in 1956, buried in Père Lachaise. At her request, she was laid to rest in white, with a rose and Apollinaire’s letters on her heart.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “She produced a lot of work and she was really well known and internationally sought after in her time. But that is less true today.” — Tracy V. Wilson [05:07]
• “Barney was also unapologetically publicly lesbian at a time when homosexuality was really heavily stigmatized.” — Tracy V. Wilson [09:39]
• “Apollinaire said Laurencin invented poetry for him and he described her as his feminine counterpart.” — Holly Fry [13:02]
• “Why should I paint dead fish, onions and beer glasses? Girls are so much prettier.” — Marie Laurencin, quoted by Holly Fry [28:28]
• “If I feel so far removed from painters, it is because they are men. And in my view, men are difficult problems to solve. But if the genius of men intimidates me, I feel perfectly at ease with everything that is feminine.” — Marie Laurencin, quoted by Holly Fry [41:22]

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• Inspiration & Current Interest: [03:14–05:07]
• Early Life: [06:54–08:55]
• Barney’s Salon & Early Print Work: [09:34–11:24]
• Cubism, Apollinaire & Artistic Networks: [11:46–14:14]
• Critical Reception & Artistic Circles: [19:20–20:58]
• Major Exhibitions & Cubist Ties: [21:10–24:02]
• WWI, Exile, Nicole Groult: [25:12–26:33]
• Artistic Evolution & Return to France: [26:33–31:09]
• WWII and Artistic Decline: [36:34–37:55]
• Postwar Isolation & Adoption of Moreau: [38:11–38:36]
• Sappho Illustrations & Death: [38:36–39:18]

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Analysis of Laurencin’s Fade from Fame

• Laurencin’s intentionally “feminine” style, focus on beauty, and reluctance to be analyzed after death (via her will and censored papers) led to art historians and feminists sidelining her.
• She painted "art people would enjoy looking at," opting for decorative quality over boundary-pushing abstraction. Quote:

“She wanted to make art, art that people would enjoy looking at.” — Holly Fry [41:00]

• Interest revived post-1970s with rising focus on women’s and LGBTQ history.

Special Note on Japanese Enthusiasm

[42:47] – Laurencin has been particularly celebrated in Japan, with a dedicated museum and ongoing exhibitions, even as her star faded elsewhere.

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Closing Thoughts

Tracy and Holly reflect on their own responses to Laurencin’s art—Tracy’s immediate enchantment, Holly’s appreciation for its beauty even if not her personal “jam”—and discuss how art creates visceral, unexpected emotional reactions.

“That is why I love art so much.” — Holly Fry [44:34]

For more info: The hosts note show notes include links to view Laurencin’s art online.

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Transcript

[Tracy V. Wilson]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

Happy Saturday. After this week's episode on Theophile Steinlen, we thought we would return to Montmartre and the French artists there with an episode on Marie Laurent. At the end of this episode, we talk about the Marie Laurentin Museum in Japan, which closed in 2019. The museum is still curating a large collection of her art, though, and the museum collaborated with the Barnes foundation in Philadelphia for an exhibit called Marie Sapphic Paris, which ran from October of 2023 until January of 2024. I went to it. It was lovely. That was followed by another version of the exhibit at the Columbus Museum of art later in 2024. So maybe there will be other exhibitions of her artwork in the future. This episode originally came out on June 26, 2019.

[Holly Fry]

Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartradio.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We are just back from Paris. Indeed. I I'm sure Holly did this too. Of course. I came back from Paris with a list of ideas for future episodes of the podcast.

[Holly Fry]

Oh yeah, the list is long.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, I'm planning to spread mine out so it's not just like all 19th century France all the time. Even though that is fun. This is more more 20th century than 19th. So when we had our trip to Paris, I went out just a little early for a little extra time. A little jet lag recovery before the trip officially started. And one of the places I went during that time was the Musee de l'. Orangerie, and I and my husband had been drawn there by Monet's water lilies. But later on in our visit, I found myself just totally spellbound by five paintings by Parisian artist Marie Lorenson. These are in another part of the museum. All five of them were of women and animals with very simple and willowy lines and this muted color palette of pink and blue and green and gray. And they just seemed wistful and ethereal. And I just loved them. The audio guide had a little bit about what I was looking at and who painted them. But I really wanted to know more about this woman who had created these works. And that proved to be a little trickier than I expected. She produced a lot of work and she was really well known and internationally sought after in her time. But that is less true today. It is especially less true outside of France. Her personal papers are in a French library, but they have been censored, like with words physically cut out of them, either by her or by somebody connected to her estate. And then they can also only be accessed with the estate's authorization. And one of the conditions of that authorization is that unpublished material from her work cannot be directly quoted. So her biography has not gotten nearly as much in depth attention as some of her contemporaries. And a lot of what's there is in French. And she also hasn't gotten as much attention from art historians because some of the nature of her work, which we will be talking about as well, that didn't make any of this impossible. It just meant that when my husband was at the fancy library helping me out with getting me a book, and he sent me a photo of like, what would you like from this shelf? I said, everything in English, Bring it all to me. It's a little more challenging than normal, but not impossible.

[Holly Fry]

Still laughing at that. So to begin, Marie Melanie Laurenson was born in Paris on October 31, 1883. I already love her as a Halloween baby. Her mother, Pauline, may have had some Creole ancestry, and her father was a government official named Alfred Toulet. Pauline and Alfred were not married. Alfred was not particularly present in Marie's young life. She actually did know he was her father until she was in her 20s and at that point he had died.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Although he didn't acknowledge Marie as his daughter, Alfred Toulet might have given the family some financial support. Pauline was able to establish herself as a seamstress and an embroiderer and provide herself and her daughter with a pretty middle class lifestyle. They lived in an apartment at the foot of Montmartre, usually with at least one cat, which is another reason to love her.

[Holly Fry]

Of course, Pauline was very strict. Gertrude Stein described her and Marie as being like a pair of nuts, nuns living in a convent. Pauline also wanted Marie to be educated and cultured, and their apartment was filled with books, something that Marie would carry into her adult life. She had a library of about 5,000 volumes by the time that she died. Marie and her mother also took frequent trips to the Louvre and other museums. Pauline loved to sing, and Marie loved to listen to her. She would later say that without her mother singing, she probably never would have picked up a paintbrush, but otherwise their life at home was very quiet and almost austere year.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Pauline was really hoping that Marie would grow up to be a teacher. But Marie dashed that hope very thoroughly by coming in last in every subject at Lyce Lamartine that included art class. Although Marie was interested in art from a young age, by the turn of the century, she was particularly drawn to the Impressionists, the Post Impressionists and the Fauvists, including Cezanne, Renoir, Manet, Toulouse Lautrec and Matisse. She also wrote poems, some of which were later published under the pseudonym Louise Lalanne. Without teaching.

[Holly Fry]

As a possible way to support herself, Marie turned to painting, specifically painting on porcelain through the Svres porcelain factory. And this was a challenging path for her. She was extremely nearsighted, and eyeglasses were not fashionable in Paris in the early 20th century. Laurenson used a lorgnette or a pair of lenses on a handle to to look at her work. She didn't let her vision keep her from doing anything, though. She enjoyed fencing, which she would do with glasses in one hand and a foil in the other. This delighted Paul Poiret, previous podcast subject, so much that he made her a special costume to do it in and let her fence in his apartment.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

While she was studying porcelain painting, Laurent was also attending regular gatherings hosted by Natalie Barney, who had moved to Paris from the United States States. Barney was a writer, a poet, and an heiress, and she hosted a salon in Paris's Latin Quarter that was frequented by some of the city's most prominent artists, writers, musicians and patrons. Barney was also unapologetically publicly lesbian at a time when homosexuality was really heavily stigmatized. She was actually one of the inspirations for the character of Valerie Seymour in Radcliffe Hall's the well of Loneliness, which was one of the first lesbian novels written in English.

[Holly Fry]

Barney had been nicknamed the Amazon after being seen riding a horse by sitting astride it instead of sidesaddle. When she first started the Salon, she called it the Salon of the Amazon and admitted only women. She held other women only events as well, including all women pagan circles. And she later established a women's art academy, since l' Academie Francaise admitted only men. But eventually Barney made the Salon of the Amazon open to anyone, regardless of gender.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Laurenson was a regular at the Salon and at other gatherings at Barney's home. Pierre Louis, who was the author of Chanson de Bilitis, attended the Salon as well. We talked about Chanson Debilitis recently in our Sappho episode, but just in case you missed that one, this was a supposedly unearthed set of erotic poems that were purportedly by one of Sappho's students. They were really Pierre Louise's own creation, though. One of Laurenson's first produced works of art was an etching titled Chanson de Bilitis, which she printed repeatedly in 1904 and 1905, really experimenting with colors and techniques as she did it. This depicts two women kissing with an oil lamp that looks a little bit like a waterfowl of some sort in the corner.

[Holly Fry]

By the time she was doing this print work, Laurence had decided to branch out from porcelain painting. She started studying at the Academie Humbert, which was one of the many art academies in the Montmartre district of Paris. She learned drawing and printmaking and started meeting members of the Parisian avant garde, including Georges Braque, with whom she developed a very close friendship.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Along with Pablo Picasso, Braque was one of the founders of Cubism. Braque introduced Laurence Dahn to Picasso, and Picasso introduced her to guillaume epollinaire around 1907, telling him that she would make him a good fiance.

[Holly Fry]

Apollinaire was eight years older than Lauren San. Born in Rome as Wilhelm Apollinaire de Kastrowitzky, he was raised in various parts of southern France before finally settling down in Paris. He and Lauren San had a lot in common. They were both raised by unmarried mothers, both connected to Paris's avant garde community, and both passionately creative. On their own, they started an intense and sometimes volatile relationship, both of them seeming to draw creative inspiration from each other and from the relationship itself.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Sometimes Laurenson is described as a Polinaire's muse. That's something that was possibly inspired and definitely reinforced by Henri Rousseau's 1909 portrait of them, which is titled the Muse Inspiring the Poet. This is actually the picture that is used for the artwork on our website for copyright reasons, meaning it's the one we had access to because of copyright. So if you come to our website, that is what you're seeing, not some of her own work.

[Holly Fry]

And it is clear that Apollinaire's work was changed significantly while they were together. His early writings were explicit erotica, but in 1909 he published his first volume of poetry. He also became a literary and art critic, helping to define the Cubist movement and supporting the work of writers and painters all across the world of Parisian modern art. Apollinaire said Laurent invented poetry for him and he described her as his feminine counterpart.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

But this was not at all a one way street with Laurence Anne just sort of passively inspiring Apollinaire to greatness merely by existing, which is sort of how people imagine Muse's work. They were both really drawing from and challenging each other, and she was developing as an artist in her own right while they were together. These were really formative years for Marie Laurenson. Her work through the nineteen teens was stylized, somewhat influenced by the Cubists. She was often working in color palettes that were dominated by a lot of brown, and she was also exploring her technique through creating self portraits. She did at least 36 self portraits during her lifetime, those just being the ones that were titled as self portraits. A third of those were before 1914.

[Holly Fry]

Laurentine continued to live with her mother during her study of art and her relationship with a pollinaire and we'll get into how these years unfolded after we first take a pause for a little sponsor break. Unlike the people we normally talk about on the show, we are living in a time when Internet connectivity is a standard part of life for most people and there is literally no way we could research and prepare our podcast without the Internet. If connectivity goes down for me, it can be really hard to make up that lost time. And for businesses, Internet connectivity is even more of a necessity. Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all sizes connected seamlessly with fast and reliable Internet, advanced Wi, Fi, phone, TV and mobile services. Spectrum business offers 100% US based customer support and they do it 24. 7. That means you can always stay up and running no matter what hours your business keeps. Spectrum Business also will tailor connectivity solutions just for you. They will put a package together that is built for your business budget. Millions of business owners rely on Spectrum Business to keep them connected. So visit spectrum.combusiness to learn more. Restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

The Parisian avant garde community of the 1900s and 1919 teens was really highly interconnected. Many painters also wrote poetry, and many poets also painted or did some other visual or plastic art. Artists and writers were gathering constantly in cafes and coffee shops and galleries and people's homes.

[Holly Fry]

Laurence was an active and visible part of this scene, and although her mother had her doubts about Marie's future as an artist, she hosted groups of Cubists at their Montmartre apartment. Laurence, Anne, was also frequently at the Bateau Lavoire, where Picasso and other Cubists had their studios, and she was a regular at some of the most influential literary salons in the city.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

She wasn't universally beloved by this community, though. Polinaire praised her work really effusively, to the point that people sometimes thought that his feelings for her were coloring his judgment about her work. But Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso's girlfriend, Fernand Olivier, were both pretty dismissive and disparaging of her. Both Stein and Olivier wrote derisive accounts of an incident in which Lorenzo was drunk at a party. Olivier also called her affected and a bit silly, and claimed that she was only successful because of her connection to Apollinaire. Stein implied that Lorenzan didn't really fit in with the rest of the community either. Writing quote everybody called Gertrude Stein Gertrude or at most Mademoiselle Gertrude. Everybody called Picasso Pablo and Fernand Fernande, and everybody called Guillaume Epollinaire Guillaume and Max Jacob Max, but everybody called Marie Laurent Marie Lorencin.

[Holly Fry]

It's like the opposite of the Madonna thing. She wants all the names.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

If you're wondering why Gertrude Stein refers to herself in third person, this is from the Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. It was written that way.

[Holly Fry]

In 1907, with Apollinaire's encouragement, Laurentine exhibited at the Salon des Indes. This was an annual exhibition of independent artists that was established in 1884 after the official Salon held by the Academie Royale repeatedly rejected the work of the Impressionists. The Academy Royale later became the Ecole des Beaux Arts and this was the first of many exhibitions for Lauren.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1908, Lauren sold her first piece of art, which was a painting called Group of Artists. It depicts the artist herself with Pablo Picasso and Fernand Olivier arranged around Guillaume Apollinaire. Also in the painting is Picasso's dog Frika. Lorenzohne's buyer for this was past podcast subject Gertrude Stein, and eventually Lorenzan would also paint a portrait of one of Stein's dogs, that dog being basket II.

[Holly Fry]

In 1909, Lorenzo painted a larger version of a similar scene known as Reunion in the country, or Apollinaire and his Friends. This larger piece featured Gertrude Stein, Fernand Olivier and an unidentified third woman as the three graces. On the left hand side of the frame, Guillaume Polinar is roughly in the center and to his right are Pablo Picasso, Marguerite Gillot, Maurice Kremnitz, and Marie Lorenzon herself. There is a dog in this painting as well, facing away from the center of the frame but with its head turned back toward Apollinaire. Laurensan gave this one to Apollinaire as a gift and it hung above his bed until his death.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

These two paintings are some of the most examined in Laurence Anne's work, and they both show the influence of Cubism in her early painting, especially the earlier years of Cubism, before it progressed to being just really abstract a lot of the time. They're both very flat with primitive lines and lots of brown, gray and black. And both of them show Lorentzan as part of this group that also included Pablo Picasso.

[Holly Fry]

But while she was fascinated by the Cubists and was nicknamed Our lady of Cubism, Lauren San didn't really consider herself to be a Cubist. She counted People like Picasso and Matisse as contemporaries and credited them with teaching her what she knew about art. But she also thought they would be embarrassed by her association with them.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And as a side note, Apollinaire was his own potential source of embarrassment. On September 7, 1911, he was arrested for stealing the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, which he had not done. However, he and Picasso had gotten someone else to steal a couple of ancient Iberian busts for them, which Picasso used as models for his painting Les Demoiselles d'. Avione. Apollinaire tried to anonymously return these busts and that led to him being held for six days for the unrelated Mona Lisa theft. He wasn't ultimately prosecuted for the theft of these busts, but this did put quite a bit of strain on his and Lorenzan's relationship.

[Holly Fry]

In 1912, Laurenson was the only woman to be part of La Maison Cubist, or the Cubist House, which was an art installation for the 1912 Salon de Tome. Like the Salon des Independents, the Salon d' Autom had been established in response to the conservatism of the Academy. The Cubist House was an architectural installation with a facade full of angles and interior rooms adorned with Cubist art. The response in the press was incredibly critical. This combination of a structure meant to look like a family home filled with avant garde art really struck a nerve with the public. In the face of all this criticism, Laurenson and a couple of other women stood guard outside, armed with umbrellas, Laurenson

[Tracy V. Wilson]

continued to make connections and show her work. In the early nineteen teens, she was part of the group of artists known as the Section d' or, and she exhibited her work with them. She had several pieces at the International Exhibition of Modern Art in New York City in 1913, which came to be known as the Armory Show. This was just a groundbreaking and incredibly influential exhibition. And it was many Americans first experience with modern art.

[Holly Fry]

Laurentin and Apollinaire ended their involvement in 1912 or 1913 after about six years together. Although he had a reputation as a philanderer, they stayed in touch. And apparently Apollinaire thought they would get back together until 1914. That's when Lauren married German artist Otto van Vetten. Laurent said Van Vetten reminded her of her mother, who had died at about the same time that she broke up with Apollinaire.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This was a difficult year or so in her life and this marriage wasn't particularly happy. World War I started while the two of them were on their honeymoon. And because von Vaetjen was German they had to leave France. They went to Spain, which was neutral during the war.

[Holly Fry]

Lorencin soon made connections among Spain's modern artists, particularly the Dadaists. She also had lots of letters from France and visitors from time to time. One eagerly welcomed visitor was fashion designer Nicole Gru, who was Paul Poiret's sister. Laurent and Gru had met in 1911, and they were extremely close for the rest of their lives, including a love affair during at least some of that time. Nicole's daughter Flora was one of Marie Laurent's first biographers, and in 2018, Marie and Nicole's relationship was the subject of a novel, J' AI intel des or I have such a Desire.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

While she wasn't totally cut off from her friends in France, Laurenson desperately missed Paris and felt isolated and depressed. Parts of the avant garde community had also really heavily criticized her for her split with a Polinaire and her marriage to a German. She eventually broke off from the Cubists, but she continued to work and she started to really establish some of the visual style that she became more known for, with lots of pinks and blues and greens rather than the browns that had dominated a lot of her earlier work, and depictions of women and animals more often than her depictions of men.

[Holly Fry]

Many of her wartime paintings also show how unhappy she was during these years, with elements that suggest being trapped or imprisoned. For example, the Prisoner shows a woman in blue looking out from behind flowing pink curtains with a black pattern that resembles a chain link fence.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

While Lorenson was away from France, Guyon Apollinaire died. He was injured in the war and then he died of influenza. Van Vaatyen also started abusing alcohol, and Lorenzohn filed for divorce in 1919. The split was apparently amicable, though they stayed in touch until his death in 1942.

[Holly Fry]

Laurenson was finally able to return to France in 1921. A year later, she underwent surgery to treat stomach cancer, and she also had a hysterectomy.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Back in France, Lauren secured the representation of influential art dealer Paul Rosenberg, who also represented people like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Rosenberg would continue to be her art dealer until 1940, when he had to flee France in the face of the Nazi occupation.

[Holly Fry]

From her return to France until about 1937, Laurentine was at the height of her career. Her work was exhibited in London, Paris and New York, and she was financially successful through commissions and the sale of her work. She continued to work mainly in pinks, blues, grays and greens, often depicting women and girls in dreamy, slightly unreal settings. At One point she said, quote, why should I paint dead fish, onions and beer glasses? Girls are so much prettier. In the words of an art critic quoted in her obituary in the New York Times, quote, she can paint a girl with eyes like a doe and a doe with eyes like a girl.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Laurenson also started working as a portrait artist, and she was successful enough to be selective about who she painted, although her dealer repeatedly had to discourage her from just giving her paintings away to people that she liked. She reportedly charged men more than she charged women, and because she found blonde women to be the most inspiring, she charged brunettes more than blondes. She would also only paint children if she liked them.

[Holly Fry]

One of her most famous paintings is a French fashion designer, Coco Chanel, done early in Laurence's career as a portrait artist. This is one of the paintings in the Musee de l'. Orangerie. Chanel is draped in blue and black with a dog on her lap. She has her head resting in her hand and she looks somewhere between wistful and pensive. Another dog is in the background, along with a gray dove.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Laurenson's portraits followed the same style as the rest of her art that she was doing around this time. So they were not really realistic likenesses of her subjects and their clothing. So when she saw this painting, Chanel refused to pay for it because it didn't look like her. Then Lauren saw, refused to do it over and kept the original for herself.

[Holly Fry]

In spite of this inauspicious start, Laurensin became famous and sought after for these pastel, simplified portraits. People would arrive to be painted wearing couture ensembles only for Laurenson to cover them up with scarves and drapes that she had around for that purpose. She also had romantic relationships with many of her subjects, regardless of their gender.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And she did a lot besides paintings and portraits in the 1920s and 30s. I mean, she did a lot of those, but other work as well. In 1924, she designed the costumes and sets for the Ballets Russes, Les Biches, or the does by Sergei Diaghilev. When this ballet was staged in the United States, dancing in the principal role was past podcast subject Maria Tallchief. Laurensin also designed costumes and sets for the Comedie Francaise, which is one of France's state theaters.

[Holly Fry]

Laurensin was a book illustrator as well. Just as a few examples, in 1930 she drew a set of illustrations for an edition of Alice in Wonderland. She also illustrated the Garden Party and Other Stories by Kathryn Mansfield and an American edition of Camille by Alexandre Dumas fils that last one drew some criticism because all 12 of the illustrations she created were of the book's main character, marguerite Gautier.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1931 she became a founder member of the French Society of Women Modern Artists. She taught at via Balakoff from 1932 to 1935, and she managed to stay financially afloat even during the Great Depression.

[Holly Fry]

In 1937, a retrospective of Lauren's work was held at the Great Exhibition of Independent Art Masters at the Petit Palais in Paris. She also finally started wearing glasses that year, and it's around this time that her career started to slow. More about that after another quick sponsor

[Tracy V. Wilson]

break

[Holly Fry]

Unlike the people we normally talk about on the show, we are living in a time when Internet connectivity is a standard, standard part of life for most people and there is literally no way we could research and prepare our podcast without the Internet. If connectivity goes down for me, it can be really hard to make up that lost time. And for businesses, Internet connectivity is even more of a necessity. Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all sizes connected seamlessly with fast and reliable Internet, advanced wi fi, phone, TV and mobile services. Spectrum business offers 100% US based customer support and they do it 24 7. That means you can always stay up and running no matter what hours your business keeps. Spectrum Business also will tailor connectivity solutions just for you. They will put a package together that is built for your business budget. Millions of business owners rely on Spectrum Business to keep them connected, so visit spectrum.combusiness to learn more. Restrictions apply. Service is not available in all areas.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Brought to you in part by Vital Farms. One of my very favorite easy meals to make is to fry up an egg in some chili oil, throw that over rice, maybe wilt a little spinach and garlic. So I have some greens in there. Delicious. So fast. So easy. You can make it with Vital Farms pasture raised eggs. These hens have access to open pastures, fresh air and sunshine and you can actually trace your eggs back to the farm. There's a little thing on the side of the carton. You can find the farm name and look it up, see pictures. Plus Vital Farms is a certified bee corporation which I always appreciate. That means they are committed to improving the lives of people, animals and the planet through food. So farmers who care, hens that get to roam and eggs that you can feel good about. Next time you are in the store, look for the black carton in the egg aisle and visit vitalfarms.com to learn more. Vital Good Eggs no shortcuts. We're lost. It feels like we're going round in Circles. I'm gonna ask that man for directions. Hi there. We're trying to get to the state fairgrounds.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

How is their signal out here?

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Actually, can you pull up the way to a T Mobile store?

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[Holly Fry]

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

When World War II started in Europe, Marie Laurenson stayed in Paris. She published a semi autobiographical collection of poetry and prose in 1942 that was called Le Carnet des Nuit, and although she continued to work in visual art, her output slowed down. As we said earlier, most critics consider her work at this point to be a repeat of the techniques and themes that she was developing earlier in her career. Rather than experimenting or breaking new ground, she did start to use some darker, brighter colors rather than the pastels that had become her Hallmark in the 1920s and 30s, and this change in palette may have been connected to the ongoing deterioration of her vision.

[Holly Fry]

Although she was able to stay in Paris, Germans requisitioned her apartment during the occupation, and she stayed with friends for the duration of the war. Some of her art was branded degenerate or looted by Nazis. Her politics during this time seem to have been contradictory. She was part of an intellectual scene that had lots of connections to the Vichy government, and in some ways Laurence was complicit with them and with German authorities. At the same time, she tried to personally intervene to save her friend Max Jacob, who was a poet and a painter. Jacob was of Jewish ancestry but had converted to Catholicism. He was ultimately deported to a concentration camp and he died in 1944 when

[Tracy V. Wilson]

France was liberated at the end of World War II. Laurentin was arrested as part of the wave of arrests and purges known as the Operation or Purification. She was briefly incarcerated at dancing internment camp, but was ultimately exonerated and released after the war.

[Holly Fry]

Lauren was prone to cycles of depression and isolation. Her closest companion became Suzanne Moreau, who had originally been her maid. It is not entirely clear if the two of them were romantically involved or if Laurensin was more like Moreau's surrogate mother, but they were together for almost 20 years. Laurencen legally adopted Moreau in 1954, when she was 70 and Moreau was 49.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1950, Laurentin produced a series of 23 etchings for an illustrated collection of Sappho's poetry, which had been translated by Edith de Beaumont in her earlier book illustrations, her work had tended to resemble her paintings, with similarly flowing lines and pastel palettes. These Sappho illustrations, though, are still flowing in style, but with a much simpler black and white design.

[Holly Fry]

Marie Laurenson died of a heart attack at her home in Paris on June 8, 1956. She was 72. She was buried in Pere Lachaise cemetery, and at her request, she was dressed in white with a rose in her hand and her love letters from Guillaume Polinaire close to her heart.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I think one of my few regrets about our trip to Paris is that I didn't realize until after we were back all of these things about Marie Laurenson, including her burial at Pere Lachaise, because we were there, but hers is not one of the graves that we went to.

[Holly Fry]

There are so many things to look at in Pere Lachaise. You cannot fault yourself for missing anything.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Well, you could be there really all day long. And I think at that point, like, because that was one of the things that we sort of did on one of our free days while we were in Paris. And at that point, I think she was written in my list of ideas for podcast episodes for after the show as something like that painter from the Orangery. Like, I didn't even have her name clearly affixed in my mind yet. So anyway, although she had been well known and sought after during her lifetime, her reputation faded pretty quickly after her death. She left instructions to Moreau not to sell her paintings or to allow people to research her. So it wasn't really until the 1970s, which I think was after Moreau's death and when there was renewed interest in women's and LGBT history, that people started researching her life and seeking out more of her work, especially outside of France.

[Holly Fry]

The nature of her work also may have acted as a deterrent for biographers and art historians. There was a decorative element to Laurensanne's paintings. She didn't push boundaries in the same way that many of her contemporaries did. Many of the Cubists who were so important to Laurensan's early development and artistic network were creating work that was increasingly abstract. And Laurence, on the other hand, ultimately broke away from the Cubists. And she painted in a way that was pretty and appealing. She wanted to make art, art that people would enjoy looking at.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Added to that, Lauren sun and her work were explicitly intentionally feminine, given the gender standards of the day. Her pastel color palette and willowy, fluid lines impressed people as just intrinsically female. And this made it really easy to write her off as Just girl stuff, rather than as a serious work of art that was full of nuance and symbolism and subtlety and sometimes humor. She clearly had an affinity for women in her work and her life as well. And that was something that earlier art historians seemed really reluctant to explore because of all the stigma surrounding lesbianism and bisexuality.

[Holly Fry]

Because so much of the interest into women's art in the 1970s was coming from the feminist movement, Laurence own preferences and opinions complicated things as well. She really favored one type of model, one who was young, white, fair and slender. And she also believed that women and men were fundamentally different and that women's art was fundamentally different from men's art. She said, quote, if I feel so far removed from painters, it is because they are men. And in my view, men are difficult problems to solve. But if the genius of men intimidates me, I feel perfectly at ease with everything that is feminine. That made her a less appealing subject of study in the context of a movement for women's empowerment, autonomy, equality and independence.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

As a counterpoint to that idea, though, Marie Laurensin was one of very few women artists to hold her own in the male dominated world of French modernists. Although she was connected to the Cubists and her early work shows some Cubist influence, she ultimately broke away from all that and developed her own distinct, unapologetically feminine style. And that was transgressive in its own way.

[Holly Fry]

There's been more interest in Marie Laurenson's life and work in Europe and North America over the past few decades, but she's been especially beloved in Japan. Japanese collector Masahiro Takano developed an interest in her work and acquired a huge amount of it, founding the Marie Laurentin Museum in Nagano, Japan, which first opened in 1983 to mark her 100th birthday. At the time, it was the only museum in the world dedicated to the work of a woman artist. The museum closed in 2011 for financial reasons. In 2013, pictures from the museum were part of a temporary exhibition at the Musee Marmontin Monet in Paris. After that, the Marie Laurentin Museum reopened in Tokyo in July 2017. Unfortunately, it closed again on January 14th

[Tracy V. Wilson]

of 2019, when I was looking at the website for it, because sometimes I am calendar challenged. Somehow I thought January 14, 2019 had not happened yet. And I was like, I gotta go to Japan right now. And then I realized six months already too late. But yeah, the wording suggests that there may be like a future exhibition at some point in the future. And it's also clear that the people who have all this art of hers, really love it and are caring for it. So maybe it will be on public view somewhere at some point in the future. Anyway, I love her.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, she's great. Her art is very pretty. It's not my jam, but I appreciate it and think it's beautiful.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, I definitely, I kind of came around a corner where all five of the paintings that were on display all were and I was immediately like I am here for this.

[Holly Fry]

Yeah, that's the beautiful thing about art is when you have that like visceral, just unexplainable emotional reaction to it. That is why I love art so much.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. And there's also we'll have a link in the show notes to the episode because we couldn't personally put some of her artwork onto our website, we will have a link to the museum's page on her that has all all five. I think of the paintings that you can look at there. I think they're really beautiful. Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. If you'd like to send us a note, our email address address is history [e-mail] and you can subscribe to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Brought to you in part by Vital Farms. I love eggs. I turn to them all the time as a quick and easy way to start a meal. And Vital Farms eggs are brought to you by hens that have access to fresh air and sunshine and you can actually the carton and see the farm that those eggs came from. Vital Farms is also a certified B corporation with a purpose to improve the lives of people, animals and the planet through food. Look for the black egg carton in the egg aisle and visit vitalfarms.com to learn more. Vital Good Eggs no shortcuts Everyone deserves to be connected.

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[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.