Leonor Fini
Painted sphinxes, sorceresses and men asleep, and refused to join the Surrealists.
Leonor Fini was born in Buenos Aires in 1907, raised in Trieste, and was largely self-taught, learning from the anatomy she studied at the city morgue and from the Old Masters in Italian collections. In Paris from 1931 she knew Ernst, Dali, Eluard and Cartier-Bresson but declined to join the Surrealist group, objecting to Breton's authority and to the role the movement allotted to women. Her paintings put women at the centre as sphinxes, priestesses and figures of command, frequently with men depicted sleeping or passive. She designed extensively for opera and ballet, illustrated books, and died in Paris in 1996.
The market has strengthened substantially in the last decade as the women of Surrealism have been reassessed. Oils on canvas are led by the 1940s and 1950s figure subjects. Alongside them sit a large body of drawings and watercolours, extensive theatre and costume designs, and illustrated books, all of which are distinct markets. Fini produced numerous lithographic editions later in life which are plentiful and modestly valued, and which are often confused with the drawings. Signature is normally on the face; the estate archive in Paris handles attribution questions.
If you own a work by Leonor Fini
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
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