Feline And Flamboyant Woman Léonor Fini

Léonor Fini - Feline and flamboyant woman, watercolor drawing by Léonor Fini, bottom right. Léonor Fini (1905-1996) born in Buenos Aires, self-taught, she began her artistic career in Trieste and Milan, and exhibited in Paris in 1932 at the Galerie Bonjean directed by Christian Dior, then in New York in 1939. She rubbed shoulders with the surrealists Max Ernst, Man Ray André Breton. She took refuge in Monte Carlo around 1940 and there made numerous portraits of personalities, among others: Maria Casares, Roger Peyrfitte, Luchino Visconti, Meret Oppenheim… There she met the Italian artist Stanislao Lepri, and settled with him in Rome, evolving in the circles of Federico Fellini and Paolo Pasolini, while creating costumes and theater sets. Returning to Paris after the war, she shared her life and studio with Lepri and the writer Constantin Jelenski. Passionate about the representation, in her works, of the theatricality of life, cats and the felinity of women, she is also known for organizing memorable costume balls, in which her appearances "as a royal owl, a gray feline or the queen of hell" are spectacular, she becomes a media personality, immortalized among others by Cartier-Bresson or Cecil Beaton. Léonor Fini leaves an artistic legacy of a strong personality, evolving between surrealism and eroticism, her works are present in many museums and major collections.