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Biografy

María Gutiérrez Cueto, known as María Blanchard
(Santander 1881-París, 1932)

She was born in Santander on March 6th, 1881, a product of a well-to-do middle class family. Both her grandfather and father were managing directors of the journals known as La Abeja Montañesa and El Atlántico , respectively. Her mother was of Polish and French descent and María would take the name Blanchard from her maternal grandmother. As a result of an accident that her mother had during her pregnancy with her, María was born with scoliosis, leaving her with a severe spinal malformation that would cause her a great deal of psychological suffering throughout her life. Nonetheless, she was able to benefit from the culturally rich and stimulating family atmosphere of her childhood, during which her father sparked her interest in art. In 1903 she decided to go to Madrid to complete her studies with Emilio Sala and the following year, after the death of her father, she settled in the capital. Eventually the entire family would end up there. Although their financial situation was more precarious, it was somewhat relieved by an uncle who helped defray the cost of María's studies, as well as family expenses. In 1906 she studied with Álvarez de Sotomayor and began to expose her work in the National Fine Arts Exposition (Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes). Two years later she competed once again, achieving a third place medal for her painting. In the same year she entered the studio of Manuel Benedito.

In 1909 she receives a scholarship from the local government of Santander and goes to Paris for the first time. She attends the Vitti Academy, where she is trained by Anglada Camarasa and Van Dongen, who direct her work towards freedom of color and expression, allowing her to depart from the restriction of the academic-style painting that had initiated her career. During the summer she traveled to Belgium with Angelina Belloff, where they coincided with Diego Rivera, whom María had already known. She sends a painting to la Nacional de Bellas Artes in Madrid and is granted a second medal. After her stay in Paris, she spends a brief time in Granada, but decides to apply for another scholarship in order to return to Paris, which she does in 1912.

Her second stay in the Parisian capital turns out to be decisive, because it enables her to come in contact with a circle of avant-garde cubists, especially Juan Gris and Lipchitz. Nonetheless, the outbreak of World War I makes it necessary for her to leave France in 1914, spending some time in Mallorca with Rivera, Belloff, and Lipchitz, and later in Madrid. In 1915 there was an exposition of Integral Painters, organized by Gómez de la Serna, which included María Blanchard along with Rivera and other avant-garde artists. Following this, the painter works for a while as an art teacher in Salamanca, but after being rejected and humiliated by her students, she makes a permanent move to Paris.

In 1916 she goes to Paris for the third time, initiating a decisive cubist phase in her work. María establishes a close relationship with Juan Gris, Lipchitz, and Metzinger. In 1918 she meets Léonce Rosenberg and her gallery group, L'Effort Modern. She soon finds buyers for her works, primarily among Russian, American and German collectors. In 1920 she exposes her work in the Salón de los Independientes , where Rosenberg purchases her cubist production, but her artistic path has already been marked by a basic turn towards the figurative art that Rosenberg does not endorse. Mariá Blanchard begins a new artistic journey that brings financial woes, but also brings about her new artistic production that coincides with the European milieu which adheres to the return to order that was prevalent between the two world wars. It is associated with a figurative style upon which cubism has left a certain constructive influence. Intimist images, both expressive and with a characteristic treatment of light and color. During this new phase, the support of Belgian benefactors such as Flausch, Delgouffre and Grimar becomes fundamental. In 1923 she exposes at the Ceux de demainv show in Brussels with an introduction by André Lothe, and in 1926-27 she does so once again, this time extending the catalog of Waldemar George. In 1927, the year during which both Gris and Flausch die, María Blanchard becomes reclusive and loses touch with other artists. Her health begins to deteriorate as she now suffers from tuberculosis. She takes solace in religion, paints continuously and is able to financially support several family members. Her overwhelming economic pressure is only relieved when she sells a painting. She is able to do so either through the Parisian Vavin Gallery or by negotiating directly with a Swiss collector for whom she ends up working. In 1930 she participates in a collective exposition in Brazil organized by the magazine Montparnasse , along with works of Gris, Léger, Matisse etc. However, by this time her life is limited to her art and the contact that she has maintained with a few friends such as Isabelle Rivière and Doctor Girardin. She dies in Paris on April 5th, 1932. C.B.