Léonor Fini lying on a floor strewn with clothes
(Léonor Fini allongée sur un plancher jonché de vêtements)
(c. 1936)
Medium
gelatin silver photograph
Measurements
18.0 × 24.3 cm (image and sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Family through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program, 2021
© Dora Maar. Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
Gallery location
Special Exhibitions Gallery
Ground Level, NGV International
About this work
Photographer, poet and painter Dora Maar created many images of her close social circle of Surrealist artists in Paris. Maar’s portraits of the women in this group are arresting, including this staged and most likely collaborative portrait of the Argentinian painter and writer Léonor Fini. Here Maar photographs Fini lying on the floor with a choreographed mess of clothing strewn around her, including what appears to be a feather boa, a discarded bra and a high-heeled shoe. The photograph seems to reference the erotic atmosphere of Fini’s own work and fosters a mysterious narrative that is in tune with the Surrealist movement.