Head of A Woman 1926

Marie Laurencin made this drawing, Head of a Woman, in 1926 with graphite and crayon. The strokes of blue and gray crayon suggest the shadow and volume of a face emerging from the white paper. I imagine Laurencin, poised with a stick of blue crayon in her hand, circling around the form of a hat, searching for the place where the light hits. You can see the traces of her thought process right there on the page; the pressure she exerted in each stroke, the places where she paused, and the angles she chose. Laurencin seems to be in conversation with other artists, like Picasso, who were also exploring the fragmented and shifting nature of perception at this time. There is a constant exchange of ideas across time; artists building upon and responding to one another’s work. In the simple elegance of her line, she captured something universal about the experience of being seen, and about the gaze of the artist herself.