Marie Laurencin was born in Paris and lived there for most of her life. The daughter of an unwed mother, Laurencin's education was nonetheless paid for by her father and included education in art at the Académie Humbert, where she studied painting. Marie Laurencin's works include paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints. She is known as one of the few female Cubist painters, with Sonia Delaunay and several others, although she later distanced herself from it, 1010While her work shows the influence of Cubist painters Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, who was her close friend, she developed a unique approach to abstraction that often centered on the representation of groups of women and animals. Originally influenced by Fauvism and its intense color, she simplified her forms through the influence of the Cubist painters. Starting around 1910, her palette consisted mainly of grey, pink, and pastel tones. During WWI, she lived in exile with her German husband and only returned to Paris in 1920, following her divorce from him. Her distinctive, mature style developed in the 1920s, when her cubist-inspired palette and geometric patterns inherited from Cubism were replaced by light tones and undulating compositions. Her signature motif is marked by willowy, ethereal female figures, and a palette of soft pastel colours, evoking an enchanted world. Art history professor Libby Otto said, "She constructs this very soft, feminine world that really spoke to viewers at the time. And if you realize that, in her soft way, she's constructing a world without men, of female harmony, there's something pretty revolutionary in there as well." Laurencin continued to explore themes of femininity and what she considered to be feminine modes of representation until her death. Her works include paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints. (Biography adapted from Wikipedia.com)