“Depuis ce jour fatal
Je ne vais plus au bal
Car cet air, cet air me fait mal”
Created after the first major break in her relationship with the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, La Romance alludes to the pair's tumultuous relationship, the figure throwing her hands up in a dramatic gesture of rejection. Laurencin and Apollinaire were first introduced to one another by Picasso at Laurencin's exhibition debut at the Salon des Indépendants in 1907; the two would subsequently be romantically involved for six years, with Laurencin often being identified as the poet's muse. During their relationship, Apollinaire wrote frequently of Laurencin, bestowing her with the title “Our Lady of Cubism” and further cementing her association with the group despite her own resistance to being linked with the movement. Instead, she drew from the dreamlike imagery of modern poets, including Apollinaire, and the soft colors of Impressionism. Though the pair never married and were separated by the time Laurencin was thirty, she was buried, as per her wishes, with Apollinaire’s love letters and a rose in her hand, wearing a white dress.