Leonor Fini (1907-1996),
Work from the series: Sultanas and Sorceresses of a Thousand and One Nights
Year: 1976
Color serigraphy
Signed in pencil in lower right corner and numbered 191/275
Dimensions: 52.5 x 71 cm, 73 x 93 cm (with frame)
Framed work
Certificate of authenticity
The work can be seen at Quintessence gallery: Tarnów, Plac Rybny 2
La Reine pétrifiée / Le pari de Zobéïde -The PetrifiedQueen / Zobéida
Zobéida, a wealthy woman and merchant, travels with her sisters and ends up in a city turned
into stone. In the palace, she discovers, among other things, a petrified queen and the only surviving young man, who tells her that the entire city has been punished for godlessness. Zobéida takes him with her and wants to marry him, but jealous sisters throw them both into the sea. She saves through supernatural help, and the sisters are turned into black dogs. This is one of the most fairy-tale yet cruel stories: about envy, retribution, a miraculous rescue and female loyalty put to the test.
Leonor Fini (1907-1996) - Argentine surrealist painter of Italian descent. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, she grew up in Trieste, Italy. At the age of 17 she moved to Milan and then to Paris. There she met: Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Georges Bataille, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Pablo Picasso, André Pieyre de Mandiargues and Salvador Dalí and his wife Gala. She traveled around Europe in Cartier-Bresson's car, and during one such trip he took the famous photo of Fini naked in a swimming pool. The photo sold in 2007 for $305,000 (a record price for his work). She painted portraits of Jean Genet, Anna Magnani, Jacques Audiberti, Alida Valli, Jean Schlumberger (jewelry designer) and Suzanne Flon, as well as many other well-known Paris celebrities.
Despite her close ties to the Surrealist circle, she did not consider herself one of them. However, her works were often exhibited together with those of the Surrealists. Her paintings are very personal and symbolic, sometimes somewhat theatrical. You can see in them a fascination with the female body and sexuality. While working for Elsa Schiaparelli, she designed the flacon of Shocking perfume, which became a standard product of the Schiaparelli company. She also designed costumes and decorations for theater, ballet and opera. She designed the costumes for Renato Castellani's Romeo and Juliet (1954) and John Huston's Walk with Love and Death (1968). She was married once, briefly, to Fedrico Veneziani. From 1941 she was linked to Italian aristocrat and former consul in Monaco Stanislao Lepri, who, under her influence, took up Surrealist painting. From 1952, Fini became involved with Polish writer and publicist Konstanty Jelenski. From that year until the deaths of Lepri (1980) and Jelenski (1987), the three lived together in a house in Paris, leading an intense social life and revolving among the bohemian artistic community. All three were bisexual and also led a fairly casual sex life, entering into external relationships. At Jeleński's urging, Fini provided the Lambert Gallery (the originator and founder was Kazimierz Romanowicz) with a list of addresses of art dealers, collectors, snobs and salon regulars and art critics.
