A classic image by one of the most intriguing female artists in early twentieth century Europe, Ophélie embodies the best of what you find in almost every work she executed, a lovely female form, simplified, stylized and elegant, rendered with soft fluid colors. A very French painter, Laurencin creates her nation’s flag out of her figure, the colors blue, white, and red radiating across the canvas. Remarkably feminine with its curvilinear lines, we see the influence of portrait miniatures akin to the Rococo designs to which Laurencin was exposed at the Sevres Porcelain Factory where she first apprenticed in 1903. It is important to note that Laurencin is not interested in creating a likeness or portrait of a particular person, rather her sitters are always an ideal of woman, rather to create an allegory that transcends time and place. Though Laurencin was closely involved with most important painters of the time such Braque, Leger or Delaunay, she maintained her own identity as an artist.