He had everything against him to succeed in Paris, but he succeeded in the world capital of art. He came from a small provincial capital like Santander, suffered from a double deformity of his spine, hardly spoke French and had to make his way in a closed world of men. However, María Gutiérrez Blanchard (Santander, 1881 – Paris, 1932) became a master of cubism and later of figuration with a brilliant and innovative work at the level of the geniuses with whom she dealt such as Juan Gris, Diego Rivera or Picasso himself.
Erased its mark for decades, some recent exhibitions, such as a retrospective at the Picasso museum in Malaga; or its inclusion with three paintings in an exhibition of 20th century Spanish painting at the Masaveu Foundation in Madrid or its presence in the exhibition Grotesque at the Reina Sofía, which will be open until March, they recover this unique artist. Art historians and experts consider María Blanchard the most important Spanish painter of the last century.
After eight decades of almost total oblivion, María Blanchard’s stature began to be reclaimed in 2011 with a retrospective at the Reina Sofía center and with a biographical documentary. María José Salazar, art historian and then curator of the aforementioned museum, was the curator behind that exhibition. Author of a doctoral thesis on the painter and the greatest expert on her work, Salazar has no doubts when explaining the relevance of the Spanish artist.
“Blanchard had the courage to go to Paris in 1911 without financial resources or contacts in the French capital based on a scholarship he was awarded in Santander. That is to say, he dared to break with everything. On the other hand, painting was the foundation of her life, she lived only to paint. This is how she interacted face to face, not as a student or disciple, with the most brilliant artists of avant-garde Paris. Today, little by little the new reading on women in art has allowed a greater knowledge of Blanchard. However, it remains unknown to many art fans or scholars,” says Salazar.
Gloria Crespo, also from Santander, has a degree in Fine Arts, graphic editor and author of the documentary. 26 rue de Depart Regarding his countrywoman, he remembers that at the University no one cited Blanchard and even today his name remains in the shadows. “Within Cubism,” she states emphatically, “she is the most outstanding artist and it is heroic that from her origins in a bourgeois family in Santander she reached Montparnasse and triumphed in an era so marked by machismo among artists and critics. However, she was an impractical woman and very clumsy when it came to commercial matters, which was an obstacle to her projection.”
Both María José Salazar and Gloria Crespo emphasize that the painter grew up in a provincial but very cultured environment where three other women in her family stood out: the writer and republican deputy Matilde de la Torre, the novelist Concha Espina and the translator Consuelo Berges. Blanchard was also lucky that her parents encouraged her to study first in Madrid, with established painters like Manuel Benedito, and then in Paris with teachers like Anglada Camarasa.
In the French capital, where she settled permanently in 1916 at the age of 35, never to return to Spain, María subscribed to the Cubist movement where she introduced color as an innovative contribution. “After his brief and intense cubist period,” says Salazar, “he returned to order, to a new figuration, but with a trace of cubism.” It was the twenties in which Blanchard exhibited frequently and successfully in Paris, Brussels and London, cities in which his work began to be recognized. But in 1927 a double adversity plunged the artist into a deep depression, she became aware of her serious illness and a religious spirit arose in her that was transferred to her paintings that reflected sweeter and melancholic environments.
“Let’s say that she found a balm in religion,” says María José Salazar. That fateful year of 1927, his dealer and his great friend Juan Gris died and, as if that were not enough, his life was complicated at that time with the arrival of his three sisters to Paris with the intention of supporting them. Thus, in addition to the financial losses, her scoliosis from birth was worsened due to an accident her mother had during pregnancy. Blanchard therefore lived with a double deviation of the spine that left her hunchbacked and sometimes aroused misunderstood compassion on the part of her colleagues or critics.
A legacy with bad luck
“I am sure,” says Crespo, “that Blanchard was done a disservice by emphasizing her hunchback condition and a compassionate vision when she overcame both that handicap and the impossibility of having children.” The photos that remain of the artist show her with short garçon hair and a sad and at the same time energetic look behind a pince-nez. In María José Salazar’s opinion, the painter had a strong character and always set her own criteria to such an extent that other colleagues used to ask her opinion. This historian regrets that the legacy of the artist, who died in 1932, had bad luck for different reasons, one more reason for her oblivion. “Various circumstances,” Salazar maintains, “such as one of his sisters withdrawing her work from dealers or customs problems or the outbreaks of the Civil War and World War II complicated the conservation and dissemination of her work that hangs today. in the main museums of Europe.
In recent times, Blanchard’s career and work have seen a fortunate boost through some exhibitions and, in particular, the one organized by the Picasso Museum in Malaga between April and September with 85 oil paintings and drawings in one of the cultural events of the year. In the Andalusian city, some key works by the painter were exhibited, such as The communicant (1914), The lady with the fan (1916), The girl with the bracelet (1923) or The card caster (1925). The then artistic director of the museum, José Lebrero, describes the painter’s claim as “an act of historical justice” and adds that “a greater collective sensitivity and a greater interest in the work of the artists has led to an increase in the presence of women in art. In the case of Blanchard, this great exhibition undoubtedly had to be shown in a Picasso context.”
Perhaps the thermometer of María Blanchard’s recovery is now being tested at the María Cristina Masaveu Peterson Foundation in Madrid, where the Cantabrian painter appears with three paintings in a room that she shares, not by chance, with two geniuses like Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris . This exhibition, which will be open until July next year, has the significant title of Spanish art of the 20th century. From Picasso to Barceló and there appears in her own right an artist who triumphed against all odds and whose legacy has finally been able to overcome oblivion.
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