Profession: artist

Alechinsky joined Dotremont, Appel and Jorn in the newly-founded CoBrA group in 1949. He studied engraving with Hayter, collaborated with Ting and Bury, and made a connection with Breton. Brauner, Giacometti and van Velde all became friends.

Jacob and Picasso shared a room, a bed and a hat, one working by day, the other by night. Apollinaire, Salmon and Cocteau were among his neighbours and friends at the Bateau Lavoir. Braque and he invented cubism, Gonzalez helped him with his sculpture, and Leiris and Stein wrote about him. Proust, Joyce, Diaghilev and he dined with Stravinsky after the première of ‘Renard.’ He collaborated with Satie, Diaghilev, Massine, Cocteau and de Falla on seminal dance pieces. Maar was his lover and photographed the painting of Guernica; Brassaï was a friend for decades, Picasso saying that his photos explained him best.

Picasso, Apollinaire, Archipenko, Lipchitz, Bourdelle, Brancusi and Delaunay were all met when Zadkine went to France after studying in Sunderland (a family connection) and London. Bomberg had become a friend in London. Léger, Archipenko and Chagall were among his studio neighbours in Paris (Chagall had already been met on a return visit to Vitebsk). Picasso, Salmon, Jacob, Apollinaire and Modigliani — particularly close — were among the crowd he mixed with when he moved on to Montparnasse. Matisse visited his studio, and Varèse counted him among his main companions in Paris. He himself falsely stated his birthdate as 1890 rather than the true 1888.

Huysmans introduced Redon to Mallarmé, leading to a deep friendship. Huysmans wrote about his art in ‘À rebours’, and comforted him after the death of his first child; Mallarmé also wrote about his work. He met Corot (one of his strong influences) staying near Barbizon. Vuillard stayed with him and along with Bonnard regularly spent time in his company. He encountered Delacroix (one of his inspirations), was painted by Denis surrounded by younger painters, and told Bernard that more and more, he was giving up the use of black.

Ernst met Herzfelde, Grosz and Macke, an important early influence, through ‘Der Sturm.’ Arp and Baargeld were Dada collaborators. Apollinaire and Delaunay were his first Paris friends, years before his return, encouraged by Éluard and Breton. He worked with Miró on designs for Diaghilev, and with Buñuel and Dalí on ‘l’Age d’Or,’ appeared in a film of Richter’s, and welcomed the penniless Cage to stay. Staying with Giacometti in Switzerland led to some of his earliest sculpture. He illustrated several books of his close friend Éluard’s, and failed to seduce Lenya despite writing to her about his cat disgorging a whole mouse.

Derain was a close friend from their early days as artists; they met on a train and shared a studio (not paying the rent, and burning the chairs to keep warm). Matisse was introduced by Derain at an influential van Gogh exhibition, and encouraged the two to show their work at the Salon d’Automne, where the label ‘fauves’ first appeared. Vlaminck was friends with all the major fauves, as well as drinking with Picasso, Jacob, and the other Bateau Lavoir denizens. He was choosy about his friends, but was close to Modigliani, Aymé and Carco. Mac Orlan celebrated his stained-glass-blue eyes.

The sculptors Maillol, Laurens, Lipchitz and Gonzalez, as well as Braque and Kandinsky, were among the artists he met when he visited Paris; de Chirico and Severini were among his Italian friends there. Based in Switzerland during WWII he mixed with Richier and Giacometti (fellow-sculptors again), and later met Moore, with whom he enjoyed a particularly deep friendship. Arp, Calder, Beckmann and Dalí were met during a stay in America. Not widely noted for portraiture, he made busts of friends and colleagues Moore, Miller, Mies van der Rohe and Richier, and one of Stravinsky as soon as he met him.

As an artist, Laurencin was overshadowed by the company she kept. She studied alongside Braque and Picabia, and knew many of the Bateau Lavoir denizens, including Jacob (whose work she illustrated), Salmon, Stein, Derain and Picasso (who introduced her to Apollinaire, her lover for 6 years — Rousseau painted the two as Muse and Poet). She did stage-designs for Diaghilev, and taught with Exter at Léger and Ozenfant’s art school. She contributed poems to Picabia’s review, and saw a lot of him and the Delaunays while in exile in Barcelona. Poiret commissioned textile designs from her; Chanel rejected the portrait she painted.