Jeunes femmes

Marie Laurencin showed The Young Women at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris in 1911, alongside works by other artists painting in a similar style. The exhibition, which gave rise to the term “cubism”, caused a scandal but was also the breakthrough for cubist art. This painting was the first of two works that Rolf de Maré purchased in Paris in 1914; the other was Georges Braque’s Still Life with Fruit Bowl. Both were bought from the art dealer Wilhelm Uhde, who wanted to make Laurencin famous by selling the painting for an extremely high price. With Nils Dardel as his agent, the wealthy Rolf de Maré acquired the painting for 4,000 francs – to be compared with Braque’s still life, which was bought for 1,000 francs.