Marie Yvonne Laur

Marie Yvonne Laur, also known as Yo Laur and born as Laure Alice Yvonne Brunel, (Paris, 22 July 1879 - Ravensbrück, 11 November 1944) was a French painter and member of the Freemasonry movement.

Biography Laure Alice Yvonne Brunel was the daughter, granddaughter and niece of a painter. Her father was Alfred Arthur Brunel de Neuville (1852–1941), a famous French genre painter who painted still lifes and animals (especially cats), and Louise Félicité Neuville (1858–1903), She had three sisters, but was the only one in the family to take up her father's torch as a painter. Her grandfather was the painter Léon Brunel (1816–1896).

She studied with her father, then with Jean-Léon Gérôme (Vesoul, 1824–1904). After completing her training, she devoted herself to painting domestic animals, mostly cats, and later still lifes, such as fruit and flowers. From 1900, she exhibited in the Salon and in 1908 joined the Salon des artistes français.

In 1934, she was recognised as Peintre de l'Air, a title awarded by the French Minister of Defence to artists who dedicate their talent to aerospace.

From her imprisonment until her death after deportation to the Nazi concentration camp Ravensbrück in 1944, she continued to make drawings of the environment in which she was held captive. Those drawings were buried, exhumed, hidden and then brought back to France by Béatrix de Toulouse-Lautrec (1924–2017), a fellow prisoner and friend of Marie Yvonne Laur. The Lightner Museum in St Augustine (Florida, USA) also owns a work by Marie Yvonne Laur: Cats, Kittens and Jewelry Chest Still Life (circa 1900).