Born in Buenos Aires, Leonor Fini moved to Trieste with her mother when she was a child. After leaving Trieste for Milan at the age of 17, she relocated to Paris in either 1931 or 1932. There, she became acquainted with Paul Eluard, Max Ernst, Georges Bataille, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Picasso, André Pieyre de Mandiargues and Salvador Dali. Her artistic formation was largely autodidactic. Leanor Fini painted portraits of such personalities as Jean Genet, Anna Magnani, Alida Valli, Suzanne Flon and she complemented her art with many designs of sets and costumes for opera, ballet, theater and films. Drawing was an important part of her life and her extraordinary draughtsmanship is marked by rapid, vibrant, sharply incisive strokes of a fine pen. Although she was friends with many of the leading surrealists she never formally joined the movement though she did include her works in several of their International Surrealist Exhibitions. |
