The Easel

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21st November 2023

Marie Laurencin

Laurencin was friends with the young Picasso but had no intention of following his cubist lead. Instead, she developed a world of female harmony, “diaphanous female figures in a blue-rose-gray palette”, engaged in flirtation. Notably, there were no men. To modern eyes, such images are code for gay relationships. Some might think her works too pretty but “when you’re feeling sick of great men, a dose of Laurencin is at least a sweeter kind of poison.