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 in Quintessence gallery: Tarnów, Plac Rybny 2
Les deux sœurs jalouses - Two jealous sisters
This is a direct reference to the story known in French as Histoire des deux sœurs jalouses de leur cadette. The king overhears the conversation of three sisters and grants their wishes: the older one marries a baker, the middle one a cook, and the youngest one takes him as his wife because she promises him a miraculous offspring. The jealous sisters take revenge: after the birth of more children, they toss animals in their place and have the newborns thrown into the water. However, the children survive, grow up, and later set out to find a talking bird, a singing tree and golden water. In the end, the truth comes out and the queen's false accusation is reversed. This is a tale of envy, miraculously saved children, lost dignity and the triumph of truth.
Leonor Fini (1907-1996) is an 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.
