Inspiring People: May 2014

Maria Blanchard (1881 - 1932)

"Jeune fille lisant"

Maria Blanchard was born horribly disfigured from a fall that her mother took while she was pregnant. Her disfigurements included enanismo, which is like dwarfism, a hump on her back, much like a polio victim would have and cojera, which is a deformity in the hips, making walking very difficult. She was often referred to as "the witch". This led her to live a life of solitude. However, this did not stop Maria from becoming a great artist.

"Enfant aux pâtisseries" 1924

"Fillette endormie" 1925

Maria Gutierrez Blanchard was the first-born child of Conception Blanchard and Enrique Gutierrez. She was born in March of 1881, in Santander, Spain. In 1903, Maria moved to Madrid so she could study to become a painter. Her teachers included Fernando Alvarez de Sotomayor, Manuel Benedito andEmelio Sala.

In 1909, Maria's hard work and training won her a grant to continue her studies in Paris, at the Academy Vitti (Academie Vitti), where she studied under Hermengildo Anglada Camarasa, and Kees Van Dongen. While at the Academy, Kees taught her how to break out of the constraints on her artwork that she was taught while studying in Spain. It was during this time that she was introduced to Cubism, after meeting artists such as, Jacques Lipchitz and Juan Gris. These two artists greatly influenced much of Maria's future works.

"Maternité"

In 1910, while in Paris, Maria received a medal in the National Exhibition of Beautiful Arts. She took second prize for her work titled "Nymphs Chaining to Sileno".

Maria returned to Madrid in 1914, where she would participate in an art exhibition called Pintores Integros. The exhibition was organized by Ramone Gomez de la Serna, a Spanish writer, and featured artwork from Jacques Lipchitz, Juan Gris, and Diego Rivera.

From 1914 to 1916, Maria taught drawing to select students in Salamanca. In the later part of 1916, she returned to Paris and began painting in the Cubist style with works such as "Woman with Fan" and "Woman with Guitar". With these two paintings, she fully embraced the methods of Cubism, using flat interlocking shapes. It is said that you could see the influence of Juan Gris and Jacques Lipchitz in these paintings.

"Repas"

"Still life with bananas" 1920

In 1920, Maria began to paint in a more traditional style. Her colors were more poetic and the characters in her paintings reflected the sadness and melancholy feelings that Maria felt in her own life.

In 1921, Maria achieved success with her painting titled "The Communicant", which was displayed at the Salon des Independants in Paris. She began to sell many of her artworks after this showing. But Maria's bad luck caused her to lose the support of many of her patrons due to the financial hardships of that time.

Frank Flausch came to Maria's aid by paying her a monthly contract. This aid lasted until 1926, when Flausch died.

"Jeune Fille à la Fenêtre Ouverte" 1924

"L'Enfant au Bracelet" 1922-23

"L'Enfant à la glace" 1925

Maria's health began to deteriorate from tuberculosis and the stress of day to day life, and Maria's sister Carmen and her children came to live with her. In spite of all of these challenges, Maria continued to paint, selling her paintings to the director of the Valvin Gallery in Paris, Max Berger. She also had several private patrons. This helped solve Maria's financial problems but not her health problems.

"Mujer sentada" 1928

"Le déjeuner"

"Le déjeuner" 1919

(detail)

Maria sought help for her deteriorating health in religion. It is said that she even considered entering into a convent but was persuaded not to by the leaders of the convent.

During the last few years of her life, Maria once again experienced financial problems since she had to create more paintings to sell to patrons that would help her pay for her sister and her nephews. This caused Maria's health to rapidly deteriorate until she died in April of 1932. (via)

"La convalescente"