.jpg?w=1)
拍品专文
In 1905, the young Marie Laurencin was studying applied arts and painting at the Académie Humbert in Paris, and met fellow student Georges Braque. As Laurencin and Braque’s talents and mutual respect developed, Braque wanted to introduce his fellow student to his growing artistic and literary circle. Her meeting with Picasso in 1907 was almost as important as her meeting Guillaume Appolinaire in the same year, from whom she soon became inseparable.
One of her earliest masterpieces, Apollinaire et ses amis (2ème version), painted in 1909 (Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, no. AM 1973-3), is a portrait of Apollinaire amongst a circle of admirers including Gertrude Stein, Fernande Olivier and Picasso. The figures are set across the composition, with Apollinaire at the centre, amongst a fictionalised landscape of colour fields of soft greens, greys and browns, with a flattened perspective. The female figures in the composition are in juxtaposition, with flowing dresses, and stylised eyes, faces and hands. Laurencin would swiftly become celebrated for her extraordinarily distinctive interpretations of the feminine form, winning her a place as one of the most important contemporary artists of her time, contributing to the Cubist Exhibition at the Salon D’Automne of 1911 and to the decoration of the controversial Salon Cubiste in 1912.
Laurencin started to drift away from this intimate circle when she left Apollinaire in 1912, and then married fellow Academie Humbert student Otto von Waëtjen in 1914. They left Paris together in the same year with the outbreak of the First World War, and Laurencin would return alone to Paris in 1920, by which time they had already been divorced for a year. Upon her return to Paris Laurencin entered into a financial relationship with the pre-eminent dealer Paul Rosenberg, which would provide her the steady demand for her paintings and financial stability that she craved. With this stability came the opportunity to explore another aspect of her artistic oeuvre – the applied arts. An early training in stage design and her mastery of the feminine form, combined with her contacts within the avant-garde, led her to be commissioned by Diaghilev in 1923 to design the décor and costumes for his staging of Francis Poulenc’s ballet Les Biches. The success of this production resulted in further commissions through the rest of her career, including those for Alfred de Musset's A Quoi rêvent les jeunes filles in 1928 and for the ballet Le déjeuner sur l'herbe in 1945.
The stability of the financial relationship with Rosenberg also gave Laurencin the confidence to adhere to her own clear mature style, irrespective of other developments in the avant garde, as seen in both Deux jeunes filles dans un paysage and Musique. In her mature works the subdued greens, browns and greys of the fictionalised landscapes of her earlier works remain, as seen in Deux jeunes filles dans un paysage, but are brought alive by the vibrant colours in the dresses of the female forms – often ballet dancers. The colour of their dresses, dark eyes and red lips is in contrast to their almost pearlescent skin tones and these vibrant colours were often used as compositional devices by Laurencin – as seen in the striking reds of Musique.
One of her earliest masterpieces, Apollinaire et ses amis (2ème version), painted in 1909 (Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, no. AM 1973-3), is a portrait of Apollinaire amongst a circle of admirers including Gertrude Stein, Fernande Olivier and Picasso. The figures are set across the composition, with Apollinaire at the centre, amongst a fictionalised landscape of colour fields of soft greens, greys and browns, with a flattened perspective. The female figures in the composition are in juxtaposition, with flowing dresses, and stylised eyes, faces and hands. Laurencin would swiftly become celebrated for her extraordinarily distinctive interpretations of the feminine form, winning her a place as one of the most important contemporary artists of her time, contributing to the Cubist Exhibition at the Salon D’Automne of 1911 and to the decoration of the controversial Salon Cubiste in 1912.
Laurencin started to drift away from this intimate circle when she left Apollinaire in 1912, and then married fellow Academie Humbert student Otto von Waëtjen in 1914. They left Paris together in the same year with the outbreak of the First World War, and Laurencin would return alone to Paris in 1920, by which time they had already been divorced for a year. Upon her return to Paris Laurencin entered into a financial relationship with the pre-eminent dealer Paul Rosenberg, which would provide her the steady demand for her paintings and financial stability that she craved. With this stability came the opportunity to explore another aspect of her artistic oeuvre – the applied arts. An early training in stage design and her mastery of the feminine form, combined with her contacts within the avant-garde, led her to be commissioned by Diaghilev in 1923 to design the décor and costumes for his staging of Francis Poulenc’s ballet Les Biches. The success of this production resulted in further commissions through the rest of her career, including those for Alfred de Musset's A Quoi rêvent les jeunes filles in 1928 and for the ballet Le déjeuner sur l'herbe in 1945.
The stability of the financial relationship with Rosenberg also gave Laurencin the confidence to adhere to her own clear mature style, irrespective of other developments in the avant garde, as seen in both Deux jeunes filles dans un paysage and Musique. In her mature works the subdued greens, browns and greys of the fictionalised landscapes of her earlier works remain, as seen in Deux jeunes filles dans un paysage, but are brought alive by the vibrant colours in the dresses of the female forms – often ballet dancers. The colour of their dresses, dark eyes and red lips is in contrast to their almost pearlescent skin tones and these vibrant colours were often used as compositional devices by Laurencin – as seen in the striking reds of Musique.