Conversation

• Marie Laurencin (1883–1956)
• ca. 1905 or ca. 1913
• Pencil with stump on paper
• Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
• (1975.1.653)

Marie Laurencin was active in early twentieth-century Paris as a painter, printmaker, poet, stage designer, model, and muse. On this sheet torn from a sketchbook, she drew two women facing each other in conversation. The figures show her characteristic style, with defined eyes and lightly sketched noses. Color notes—yellow and black for the woman on the left, green and brown for the one on the right—indicate that this drawing was preparatory for a pastel or another finished work.