Lettre signée à Jacqueline Maschois

Marie Laurencin tells her correspondent that she hopes “to be rid of the burden of being a property owner.” Since 1924 she had lived in a small country house at Champrosay, some twenty meters from Eugène Delacroix’s former studio. Ten happy years on the edge of the Forêt de Sénart came to an abrupt end in early 1936, when, “bothered by her neighbors’ radio, barking dogs, and a war-disabled neighbor drunk from morning to night and using foul language, she decided overnight to get rid of the house” (Draveil: cent personnages au cœur de la cité). She offered the house to friends, the writers Jean Prévost and Marcelle Auclair (co-founder of Marie Claire), “whom you must know by name.” Marie Laurencin confides that she wishes “to be freer for traveling.” From February onward she lived in Paris and never returned to live at Champrosay; matters moved quickly with the Prévosts/Auclair, to whom she sold the house along with its furniture, linens and pictures — including prints signed by Picasso and scores by Francis Poulenc: the deed of sale was signed on 8 May 1936.