A rare male portrait painted by Marie Laurencin (1883-1956), a prominent artist from the School of Paris, will be offered for sale on December 9 by the auction house Chayette & Cheval. The canvas depicts Guillaume, an eminent Parisian hairdresser from the mid-20th century, and is estimated to sell for between 3,000 and 5,000 euros.
What connects Marie Laurencin, Christian Dior, and Mireille Mathieu? It's not a date or even a place, but rather a person: Guillaume Guglielmi, known simply as Guillaume (1903-1989). This Parisian hairdresser of Corsican origin, inventor of unprecedented haircuts favored by celebrities, had access to the most prestigious social circles of Parisian high society during the mid-20th century. Guillaume's descendants have entrusted the Chayette & Cheval auction house with the sale of his portrait by Marie Laurencin, scheduled for December 9.
At the very beginning of the 20th century, Marie Laurencin trained at the Manufacture de Sèvres, a school where she learned to master painting on porcelain. She then continued with private courses at the Académie Humbert in Paris, before frequenting the Bateau-Lavoir in Montmartre in the late 1910s. Within this artists' community, she met Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Guillaume Apollinaire, painters and a poet who introduced her to Fauvism and then Cubism, avant-garde movements that freed her from the academic rigidity of her training. Subsequently, she composed her canvases with a palette marked by blue, pink, and gray tones, and refined forms that were enthusiastically received by the public.
During World War I, while exiled in Spain, Marie Laurencin encountered the great names of Dadaism, including Francis Picabia. She finally returned to Paris during the Roaring Twenties in 1921, quickly integrating into intellectual and artistic circles. Among these was Jean Cocteau, a mutual friend of Guillaume, the hairdresser portrayed by Marie Laurencin, who "was probably her client at his salon at 5, avenue Matignon," explains expert Frédérick Chanoit.
Far from being a discreet hairdresser, Monsieur Guillaume, as he called himself, was an essential figure in Paris's cosmopolitan milieu. He first caused a sensation by inventing the "Page" cut, "which resembles that of Mireille Mathieu," Frédérick Chanoit informs us. He was definitively consecrated in 1947 during Christian Dior's historic New Look fashion show, for which he styled the models' hair. Notably unique, Guillaume was also an accomplished sculptor: "he had the idea of shaping his hairstyles in clay before bringing them to life."
While Guillaume applied himself to enhancing the physiognomy of his faithful clients, it seems he was not treated with the same care in this portrait. The painting shows his haircut appearing somewhat classical in execution, or at least without any particular flair. What remain striking are his deep blue eyes and pink lips, which contrast with the gray tones of the rest of the composition. "This is a portrait of a young Guillaume; I would say it was created between 1936 and 1940," notes Chanoit.
During this period, Marie Laurencin was beginning the final phase of her life and created one of her rare male portraits, which Guillaume would hang in his home. It should be noted that the Centre Pompidou conserves in its collections a "Portrait of André Salmon" from 1943 and a "Portrait of Doctor Robert le Masle." This rarity partly explains the reasonable estimation of between 3,000 and 5,000 euros.
According to Frédérick Chanoit, "female portraits are more valued in the market than those of men." The most recent example was a "Portrait of a Young Girl" that sold for 25,625 euros (fees included) at a Tokyo sale on August 1, 2025, while a "Portrait of François Le Grix" painted in 1944 was sold on October 28 in New York for 8,228 euros (fees included). This price gap "is due more to the subject than to the formal qualities of the work," Chanoit clarifies, before adding that the canvas displays "a very good state of conservation." Those interested in bidding can follow the sale of Marie Laurencin's portrait live on December 9 at interencheres.com.
