An American Modernist
Blanche Lazzell was an American painter, printmaker, and designer. Born in a small farming community in West Virginia, she traveled to Europe twice, studying in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Académie Julian, and Académie Moderne. During her time in Paris, she studied with artists such as Charles Guérin and David Rosen. In 1915, she began spending summers in the Cape Cod art community of Provincetown, Massachusetts, where she eventually settled permanently.
Lazzell was a founding member of the Provincetown Printers, an artist group that experimented with a white-line woodcut technique inspired by Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Her work incorporated elements of Cubism and abstraction. In addition to her woodcuts, she created ceramics, hooked rugs, paintings, and gouache studies. Her subjects included landscape scenery, harbor scenes in Provincetown, flowers, and still lifes.
Artistic Technique and Legacy
The white-line woodcut technique used by Lazzell involved a single block of wood where designs were etched into the surface, with incised lines separating sections that were individually painted and printed. She often used cherry or basswood for her blocks. Her paintings demonstrated a nuanced use of color, frequently utilizing French watercolor pigments to create embossed lines and striated patterns.
Lazzell's artistic contributions included:
