Leonor Fini (1907-1996) - SELF PORTRAIT WITH HAT

Leonor FINI (1908-1996) Born to an Italian mother and an Argentinian father, she spent her childhood and adolescence in Trieste, Italy, with her mother and her maternal family. She did not know her father, who died very early. In a bourgeois, highly civilized environment she acquired a cosmopolitan culture. She left her family at the age of 17 to settle in Milan and began painting, adopting classicism and tonal painting following the example of Carrà. In 1937 she left Italy for Paris and met André Breton and the Surrealists. Inspired by their theories, she experimented with “automatic drawing”. She befriended Georges Bataille, Victor Brauner, Paul Éluard and Max Ernst without ever joining the group and, according to her, had no taste for meetings or manifestos. It's just she explores a dreamlike universe with characters with closed eyes (mostly women). Young people, a bit androgynous, languid in front of protective sphinxes, evolve or dream in an atmosphere of ceremonial celebration where eroticism flirts with cruelty. At home the woman is a witch or priestess, beautiful and sovereign. Her first monographic exhibition took place in New York in 1939. Leonor Fini made numerous portraits of Jacques Audiberti, Jean Genet, Anna Magnani, made costumes for theater, ballet and opera and illustrated texts by Marcel Aymé (“The Wyvern”), by Edgar Poe, the Marquis de Sade (“Story of Juliette”, 1945). Many poets, writers, painters and critics have dedicated monographs, essays or poems to her, including Jean Cocteau, Giorgio De Chirico, Éluard, Ernst, Alberto Moravia... Although in a sometimes critical way, painters such as Ivan Chtcheglov, Roger Langlais or Le Maréchal were interested in some of her works, especially her fantastic landscapes. Leonor Fini loved cats, she painted many paintings and drew several sketches and watercolors in honor of cats. In 1977 she even published a book entirely dedicated to her passion for felines, Miroir des Chats. She died in a hospital in the Parisian suburbs, without ever having stopped painting and writing. she painted many paintings and drew several sketches and watercolors in honor of cats. In 1977 she even published a book entirely dedicated to her passion for felines, Miroir des Chats. She died in a hospital in the Parisian suburbs, without ever having stopped painting and writing. she painted many paintings and drew several sketches and watercolors in honor of cats. In 1977 she even published a book entirely dedicated to her passion for felines, Miroir des Chats. She died in a hospital in the Parisian suburbs, without ever having stopped painting and writing.