Marie Laurencin
 Portrait of Mademoiselle Chanel,
 1923
 Oil on canvas
 92.0 x 73.0cm
 Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris
 © Photo RMN ­ J.G. Berizzi
 © Marie Laurencin, 1923/ADAGP.
 Licensed by VISCOPY, Sydney 2001

Laurencin studied porcelain painting at the Sèvres factory before studying painting at the Académie Humbert in Paris, where she met Georges Braque and Francis Picabia. She exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1907. Through Picasso she was introduced to the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, and their intimate relationship was to last several years. She was associated with the circle of radical avant-garde artists based around the tenement building known as the Bateau-Lavoir and she was present at the banquet held there by Picasso in honour of Rousseau in 1908. Laurencin became known for her dreamy, delicate figurative paintings of feminine subjects, which seem unaffected by the modern movement's revolutionary zeal.

© copyright 2001, The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Australia