Lot 50
Marie Laurencin (1883-1956)
Lot 50 Details
Marie Laurencin (1883-1956), French
PORTRAIT (”HEAD OF A YOUNG GIRL, GREEN LAURELS IN HER HAIR”), 1950
Pencil and colour crayon on Arches Ecoles B watermarked paper; signed, dated “Octobre 1950” at Paris, and inscribed “To Joseph S Morton/un ami américain.” in pencil lower left, further inscribed in pencil along the bottom edge “peintre graveur collaborateur de Sapho / Robert Bonfils he is in annuaire telephone" by the artist.
Image/Sheet 9.3" x 6.7" — 23.5 x 17 cm.; 12.6" x 9.8" — 32 x 25 cm.
Estimate $2,500-$3,500
Additional Images
Provenance:
Gifted by the artist to Joseph S. Morton, USA;
Gifted to Ethel Clair Bell, November 27, 1957 by Joseph S. Morton, then crossed out verso backing;
The Macdowell Colony, Peterborough, NH, USA, under the Bequest of the Estate of Mr. Joseph S. Morton label verso;
Walter Klinkhoff Gallery Inc., Montreal, QC, Inventory No. E9394;
Acquired from the above by the family of the present Private Collection, ON
Literature:
Poèmes de Sapho, Sappho, Édith de Beaumont (trans.), Marie Laurencin (Paris, Compagnie des Arts Graphique), 1950;
Hugh Stevens & Caroline Howlett, Modernist Sexualities, p. 105
Note:
The note along the sheet edge references the publication Poèmes de Sapho. The publication included 23 etchings by Marie Laurencin. The portfolio was under the artistic direction of Robert Bonfils.
The illustrations for the volume of Sappho’s poetry were encouraged by Natalie Clifford Barney, the American playwright, poet and novelist who lived as an openly homosexual expatriate in Paris. Their letter correspondence concerning the Sappho publications are found in the Bibliothèque Littéraire Jacques Doucet.