Blanche Lazzell was a prominent figure in the early American modernist movement, renowned for her innovative white-line woodcuts and contributions to abstract art. Born Nettie Blanche Lazzell on October 10, 1878, in a small farming community near Maidsville, West Virginia, she was the ninth of ten children in a family with deep American roots. Her ancestors, Reverend Thomas and Hannah Lazzell, were pioneers who settled in Monongalia County after the American Revolutionary War. Raised in a devout Methodist household, the Lazzells were regular attendees of the Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church. Lazzell's educational journey began at the West Virginia Conference Seminary (now West Virginia Wesleyan College) in 1894. She later enrolled in the South Carolina Co-educational Institute, where she graduated and subsequently took up a teaching position at the Red Oaks School in Ramsey, South Carolina. In 1901, she returned to her home state to attend West Virginia University (WVU) in Morgantown, majoring in fine arts. During her time at WVU, she studied drawing and art history under William J. Leonard and Eva E. Hubbard, graduating in 1905. After her graduation, Lazzell's artistic aspirations led her to further her education in Europe. She traveled to Paris, where she studied with prominent French artists such as Albert Gleizes, Fernand Léger, and André Lhote. These experiences exposed her to Cubism and abstraction, which would greatly influence her later work. In 1915, Lazzell began spending her summers in the Cape Cod art community of Provincetown, Massachusetts, and eventually made it her permanent home. There, she became one of the founding members of the Provincetown Printers, a group that experimented with the white-line woodcut technique, drawing inspiration from Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Lazzell's artistic style evolved over the years, incorporating elements of Cubism and abstraction. She was particularly influenced by her studies with Gleizes, which led to a series of abstract Synthetic cubist paintings, including Painting VIII. Her work often featured asymmetrical compositions and a push/pull spatial theory, as seen in her later works. Lazzell's love for flowers was also evident in her art, with pieces like Star Phlox (1931) and Red and White Petunia (1948), the latter winning first prize at the American Color Print Society exhibition. Throughout her career, Lazzell was actively involved in the art community. She served on the committee of selection for the Annual Modern Exhibition for six years and was a member of the international arts group Société Anonyme. She also joined the New York Society of Women Artists and the Society of Independent Artists, where she served as a mentor and role model for other artists. Lazzell's commitment to her craft was unwavering, even as she faced the challenges of maintaining a studio in Provincetown. In 1926, she demolished her original studio, which was an old fish house, and constructed a new building to better accommodate her work during the colder months. Her dedication to her art was also reflected in her participation in various shows, such as "Fifty Prints of the Year," where she debuted The Violet Jug and Trees. Lazzell's legacy is preserved through her prints, many of which are housed at the Art Museum of West Virginia University. Her contributions to American modernism have been recognized in numerous exhibitions and collections, and her work continues to inspire artists and art enthusiasts alike. In the final years of her life, Lazzell's health began to decline. She was hospitalized in Bourne, Massachusetts, in late May 1956 for a suspected stroke and passed away on June 1, 1956. Blanche Lazzell is interred next to her father in Bethel Cemetery in Maidsville, leaving behind a rich legacy as a pioneering American modernist artist.

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