Maria Blanchard

María Blanchard was born in Santander, Spain, in 1881 to a wealthy and cultured family. She was born with several physical deformities, including a deformed spine, which caused her to suffer from social rejection and emotional pain. She turned to painting as a way of expressing her feelings and finding beauty in the world. She moved to Madrid in 1903 to study at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando under Emilio Sala and Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor. She won a third prize for her painting Primeros pasos at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1908. She received a grant from the Santander government to continue her education in Paris, where she arrived in 1909. In Paris, she attended the Academie Vitti and learned from Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa and Kees van Dongen. She also visited the Prado Museum frequently and copied works by Velázquez, Goya, and other masters. She became friends with many artists of her time, such as Angelina Beloff, Diego Rivera, Ramón Casas, and Juan Gris. She discovered Cubism in Paris and was influenced by Jacques Lipchitz and Juan Gris. She joined the Section d'Or, a Cubist art group, and developed her own style of Cubism that combined geometric forms with expressive colors and themes. She often painted women, children, and still lifes with a sense of melancholy and tenderness. She returned to Madrid in 1914 due to the First World War and shared a studio with some of her Parisian friends. She participated in an exhibition organized by Ramón Gómez de la Serna at the Museo de Arte Moderno in 1915. She also taught art in Salamanca for a short period, but was disappointed by the experience. She moved back to Paris in 1916, where she would spend the rest of her life. She continued to paint and exhibit her works in various galleries and salons. She also wrote several articles on art history and criticism. She was an advocate of modernizing Spanish art and culture and supported young artists who shared her vision. She suffered from tuberculosis and poverty in her later years. She died in Paris in 1932 at the age of 51. Her friend Juan Gris died a few days later. Her son, Enrique Gutiérrez-Cueto y Blanchard, inherited her art collection and donated it to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. María Blanchard is considered one of the pioneers of landscape painting in Spain and one of the most important figures of Spanish culture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.