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Blanche Lazzell
1878–1956
BirthplaceMaidsville, West Virginia, United States of America
Death placeMorgantown, West Virginia, United States of America
BiographyBlanche Lazzell is best known for the still life paintings and vibrant color woodcuts she created as a member of the artists' colony that flourished in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in the first half of the twentieth century. Lazzell was born into a large farm family in West Virginia. She completed a liberal arts education despite the loss of nearly all her hearing due to an illness, receiving her fine arts degree from West Virginia University in 1905. In 1907–09, she studied with William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League in New York. In the fall of 1912, she began art studies in Paris at two private art schools, the Académie Julian and the Académie Moderne. On her return to West Virginia, she established her own art school, offering lessons in oil painting, watercolor, pastel drawing, and ceramic decoration, and mounted her first solo exhibition in Morgantown, West Virginia, in 1914.
Arriving in Provincetown in 1915 to attend the Cape Cod School of Art, founded by painter Charles Hawthorne (1872–1930), Lazzell encountered a vibrant community of artists experimenting with new printmaking techniques and approaches to representation, notably Ethel Mars (1876–1956) and Maud Squire (1873–c.1955), both recently returned from Paris, and B. J. O. Nordfeldt (1878–1955). In 1916, Lazzell was captivated by an exhibition featuring color woodcuts by those artists, who championed so-called white-line color relief printmaking. Lazzell took lessons in the technique from color printmaker Oliver Chaffee (1881-1944). With her bold, chromatic still lifes, in which she presented objects fragmented in the manner of cubism, Lazzell soon became a leading figure among the Provincetown printmakers. She exhibited with them frequently, notably in the landmark Detroit Institute of Arts exhibition of American color woodcuts in 1919.
In 1923-24, Lazzell returned to Paris to study geometric abstraction with cubist artists Fernand Léger (1881–1955), André Lhôte (1865-–1962), and Albert Gleizes (1881–1953). In 1923 she exhibited at the annual Salon d'Automne, a venue for advanced art. On her return to Provincetown, Lazzell began teaching printmaking and painting; tended the beloved garden from which she drew her flower imagery; and adapted her bold geometric designs to batik-dyed decorated fabrics and hooked rugs. She also attended art classes taught by painter and influential teacher Hans Hofmann (1880–1966). In 1934, with funding from the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration, a Depression-era government relief program, she made color woodblock prints of Morgantown and created a mural for its court house. During her lifetime, Lazell's prints and paintings were widely exhibited, including at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Notwithstanding her experimental work in painting and decorative arts media, Lazzell's primary legacy is that of a printmaker who brought a keen sense of color and design to familiar themes: floral still lifes, landscapes, and harbor scenes.
Arriving in Provincetown in 1915 to attend the Cape Cod School of Art, founded by painter Charles Hawthorne (1872–1930), Lazzell encountered a vibrant community of artists experimenting with new printmaking techniques and approaches to representation, notably Ethel Mars (1876–1956) and Maud Squire (1873–c.1955), both recently returned from Paris, and B. J. O. Nordfeldt (1878–1955). In 1916, Lazzell was captivated by an exhibition featuring color woodcuts by those artists, who championed so-called white-line color relief printmaking. Lazzell took lessons in the technique from color printmaker Oliver Chaffee (1881-1944). With her bold, chromatic still lifes, in which she presented objects fragmented in the manner of cubism, Lazzell soon became a leading figure among the Provincetown printmakers. She exhibited with them frequently, notably in the landmark Detroit Institute of Arts exhibition of American color woodcuts in 1919.
In 1923-24, Lazzell returned to Paris to study geometric abstraction with cubist artists Fernand Léger (1881–1955), André Lhôte (1865-–1962), and Albert Gleizes (1881–1953). In 1923 she exhibited at the annual Salon d'Automne, a venue for advanced art. On her return to Provincetown, Lazzell began teaching printmaking and painting; tended the beloved garden from which she drew her flower imagery; and adapted her bold geometric designs to batik-dyed decorated fabrics and hooked rugs. She also attended art classes taught by painter and influential teacher Hans Hofmann (1880–1966). In 1934, with funding from the Federal Arts Project of the Works Progress Administration, a Depression-era government relief program, she made color woodblock prints of Morgantown and created a mural for its court house. During her lifetime, Lazell's prints and paintings were widely exhibited, including at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. Notwithstanding her experimental work in painting and decorative arts media, Lazzell's primary legacy is that of a printmaker who brought a keen sense of color and design to familiar themes: floral still lifes, landscapes, and harbor scenes.