Dancer with Flowers (Danceuse aux fleurs)

1914–1920

Exile in Spain

Soon after the outbreak of war she leaves for Spain with her husband, to Madrid and then Malaga and Barcelona; the couple later live briefly together in Düsseldorf. In exile she writes her first poems (later under the pseudonym Louise Lalanne; the collection “Carnet des nuits”), and in Madrid, thanks to Picabia, she meets Sonia and Robert Delaunay.

1914–1920

Nicole Groult: support in exile

During her exile she is supported by her friend Nicole Groult, a fashion designer and sister of Paul Poiret; the two correspond. The relationship is reported to have been a love affair lasting forty years.

1920

Divorce and return to Paris

She divorces Otto von Wätjen, returns to Paris and begins building her career as an artist independently; there she achieves financial success that lasts until the economic depression.

after 1920

Illustrating the books of writers and poets

She builds a fruitful collaboration with poets and writers and illustrates their books, among them André Gide, Paul Morand, Max Jacob, Saint-John Perse, Jean Cocteau and Somerset Maugham.

1920s

Her distinctive style takes shape

After her return to Paris the muted colours and geometric patterns inherited from Cubism give way to light tones and undulating compositions; her signature motif becomes willowy, ethereal female figures in a soft pastel palette.

1923

Turning away from Cubism

In a 1923 interview she says that Cubism “poisoned” three years of her life and kept her from working: as long as she was under the influence of the great men around her, she could do nothing.