Drawing by Leonor Fini - Harpy

Artist: Leonor Fini (1907-1996)

Leonor Fini was born in Buenos Aires on 30 August 1907, to an Italian mother and an Argentine father. The mother separated and returned to Italy with her children, settling in Trieste. Leonor thus grew up in a highly cultured bourgeois environment, frequented by James Joyce, Italo Svevo and Umberto Saba, and began painting at a young age. At seventeen he left his maternal home to undertake numerous trips to Europe. He does not receive a formal artistic education, but studies with Achille Funi during a stay in Milan. In 1933 he moved to Paris and met some surrealist artists, Max Ernst, Paul Éluard and Victor Brauner. Although he did not join Surrealism, he nevertheless began to experiment with its methods and techniques, such as automatism, which emphasizes the artistic inspiration derived from the casual juxtaposition of forms and the fortuitous use of materials. In his images, ambiguous creatures populate dark environments spectacularly littered with objects with enigmatic psychoanalytic symbolism. In 1936 he exhibited in the group exhibitions “International Surrealist Exhibition” at the New Burlington Galleries in London, and “Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, while his first solo exhibition was held in 1938 at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York with an introduction to Giorgio de Chirico's catalogue. During the Second World War he lived in Monte Carlo and painted numerous portraits, while in the period between 1945 and 1969 he dedicated himself to creating costumes for the theatre, opera, ballet and cinema. The cats that surround her in daily life populate, together with the sphinxes, her major works from the 1930s to the 1950s. Leonor Fini continued to work in France until her death in Paris on 18 January 1996.

Age: 20th Century / 1901 - 2000

20th Century / 1901 - 2000

Subject: Allegorical/Mythological Subject

Artistic technique: Drawing

Il disegno è il processo di tracciare segni su una superficie tramite l'applicazione di una pressione o il trascinamento di un apposito strumento sulla superficie. Gli strumenti sono: matite in grafite o colorate, penna, pennelli fini con inchiostro, pastelli a cera o carboncini; i supporti tradizionali più frequenti sono carta, cartoncino, tavola, muro, tela, rame, vetro.

Technical specification: Ink