Leonor Fini: A Unique Case of a Well-Rounded Artist

In art history, only a few artists were able to embrace multiple artistic fields like Leonor Fini (Buenos Aires, 1907-Paris, 1996). Cosmopolitan and magnetic, cultured and refined, eclectic and histrionic artist, paradoxically she is little known in Italy. Although born in Argentina, Italy was where she grew up and developed her practice. In France, where she lived since the Thirties, her work is much more appreciated and renowned.

Leonor Fini is best known as a painter; however, remembering her only for that talent, does not do her justice, given that there are several artistic areas she explored. Moreover, her paintings cannot be confined to a specific movement, although she has been misleadingly introduced as a surrealist artist[1]. Fini’s style matured thanks to Trieste’s cultural bias during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Its political and cultural environment was very similar to European cities such as Paris or Vienna. Fini spent her youth here, close to a cultural milieu composed of writers, painters and intellectuals like Italo Svevo, Bobi Bazlen, Gillo Dorfles, Ernesto Nathan. Then, during her short stay in Milan, her paintings were influenced by the group Novecento, and then developed into a very personal painting style.

However, being versatile is what makes her exceptional. In fact, she worked in set design, theatrical and cinematic costume design, in illustration and in the field of fashion design. There are many philosophical and literary references at the basis of her artistic poetry, from Nietzsche to Schopenhauer, from Lewis Carroll to Edgar Allan Poe.

In Paris, during the Thirties, she knew Elsa Schiaparelli and it was for her, in 1938, that Fini created the bottle of the famous perfume Shocking. In the period of the WWII, Fini spent nearly two years in Rome. It was here that she started her career as a theatrical costume and scenography designer. One of her first collaborations was with Anna Magnani, who became her close friend. On the 15th November 1944 at the Quirino Theater of Rome, the actress played Carmen, wearing the beautiful costumes designed by Fini. In Rome she spent a lot of time with many intellectuals such as Elsa Morante, Federico Fellini, Alberto Moravia, as well as the afore mentioned Anna Magnani.

From 1947, Fini became one of Jean Genet’s close friends. For his text Les Bonnes, staged in the 1961 at the Odeon Theater in Paris, Fini designed captivating costumes under Schiaparelli’s suggestions. They worked together even in 1969 for Le Balcon. She also collaborated with Jacques Audiberti, specifically for the costumes of three of his plays: Le mal court (1955), La mégère apprivoisée (1957), La fête noire (1966).

In addition to these achievements, she had an impressive career as an illustrator. The twenty-four lithographs for Charles Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal (The circle précieux du livre, Paris, 1964), as well the twelve for La Fanfarlo (Editions la Diane française, Nice 1969 ) were the most successful works in this field.

Leonor Fini was thoroughly interdisciplinary. With Italy as her training base, the artist was able to capture in a unique way many influences that came from different places and people.

[1] Actually, for some time, she was close to surrealism, especially thanks to Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington. But considering her just as a surrealist artist is a deep mistake because she was totally independent from André Bretons group; moreover, her paintings were influenced by surrealism just occasionally.