Composition

West Virginia born Blanche Lazzell worked as a printmaker and painter, often experimenting with abstraction. She studied at the Art Students League in New York, the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, as well as numerous art schools in Paris. Throughout her studies, Lazzell practiced Cubism alongside Fernand Leger, whose influence prompted her to paint some of the first non-objective compositions in the United States. Her work is in numerous prominent museums, including The Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The first owner of the present work was fellow Cubist artist Albert Gallatin, member of the New York City artist group known as the Park Avenue Cubists.