(b 1883; d 1956) French painter. Associated with Fauvism and Cubism at the beginning of her career, Marie Laurencin developed an elegantly individualized style by the 1920s when she became a fashionable portraitist and successful decorator. Unaffiliated with any major Modern movement, Laurencin took refuge in an imaginary world inhabited by dreamy women; her art became a celebration of idealized feminine beauty. Laurencin’s generation, which matured in the intense atmosphere of pre-war Paris, was scattered by the outbreak of World War I. The twenties were characterized by a general return to order and a shift back to figurative imagery in painting. Laurencin, like many artists of her time, never again approached the artistic tension and inventiveness that had characterized her pre-war production. Her focus shifted to creating a lyrical and harmonious space in nature; her palette shifted to a savant harmony of French blue, rose and green played off against gray and black. Throughout the remainder of her career Laurencin was considered to be one of the most prominent portraitists who created a lyrical harmony and unique artistic expression. (Credit: Sotheby’s, New York, Impressionist and Modern Art Part Two, November 3, 2005, lot 166)