Life and career
Blanchard trained in Spain and continued her studies in Paris, developing an independent place within Cubist networks. She faced discrimination as a woman and as a disabled artist. After her Cubist period she returned increasingly to figures, retaining strong structural organisation; her career should not be reduced to a story of personal suffering.
Works across a career
Selected examples, not a complete catalogue. Read date ranges and attributions before inferring a career sequence.
- 01
1913–1915
View this work at the source
Reference entry · image not reproduced1913–1915
Woman with a Fan
- Material / technique
- Oil on canvas
- Attribution / role
- Museum attribution
- Collection / source
- Museo Reina Sofía
- 02
c. 1916
c. 1916
Still Life
- Material / technique
- oil, sand, and mixed media collage on canvas
- Attribution / role
- Museum attribution
- Collection / source
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
Museum catalogue note
The Spanish artist María Blanchard worked in Paris as a Cubist between 1916 and 1919. In Still Life, she portrayed multiple, simultaneous viewpoints in an abstract style based on geometry and flat planes. Although other Cubists used collage elements in their work, Blanchard was unique in her use of three-dimensional elements to create an image that fluctuates between the concrete and the illusionary. During her lifetime, Blanchard was celebrated by her fellow Cubists, and she shared studios with Juan Gris and Diego Riviera, the latter of whom described her as producing Cubism’s “finest works, apart from our master, Picasso.”
Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0 - 03
1925
View this work at the source
Reference entry · image not reproduced1925
Young Woman Combing Her Hair
- Material / technique
- Oil on canvas
- Attribution / role
- Museum attribution
- Collection / source
- Museo Reina Sofía
Compare materials, style and colour
The 1913–15 Woman with a Fan fractures a figure into interacting planes; the Cleveland Still Life adds sand and collage to painted construction; the 1925 hair-combing figure restores bodily legibility within a structured picture. Compare actual added material, painted colour and the persistence of geometry across the apparent stylistic change.
Material
What can this material do? Distinguish a design, an original object and a later impression or cast.
Style
Compare viewpoint, edges, composition and marks. Which choices persist, and which change?
Colour
Compare palette, contrast and light. Consider the support, printing, surface treatment and ageing.
Sources and further reading
Original educational interpretation; catalogue descriptions are separately credited. Each study links to its source. Reference entries without images are not added to the comparison timeline.