Two hundred years ago, in the spring of 1824, British enthusiasts for European painting had good reason to feel optimistic. In a House of Commons debate that took place on 2nd April the government was praised for agreeing to acquire for the nation thirty-eight paintings from the collection of the discerning banker John Julius Angerstein, in order to establish a new National Gallery in London.

Marie Laurencin (1883–1956), a model free spirit, danced among the sexually fluid circles of 1920s Paris. Noted for her lengthy affair with the poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918), who often took her as his muse, she was also closely involved with the city’s lesbian artistic circles, including the literary salon of Natalie Clifford Barney (1876–1972). Laurencin was a profoundly original painter, with an instantly recognisable figurative style, but she was also an inventive designer and worked on many collaborative projects across illustration, fashion, ballet and the decorative arts.