By Leonor Fini
Located in Saint-Didier, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Leonor Fini, Rogomelec (rare original print on Rives paper)
Texte : Rare lithograph on Rives paper, handsigned and numered by surrealist artist Leonor Fini, now rediscovered and inscreasingly esteemed with the movement of rediscovering art by women. Leonor Fini was actually the life of the party during the Surrealist movement like Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo, Jacqueline Lamba and Claude Lalanne. Many consider her to be the most fiercely independent female artist of the 20th centuryThis rare lithograph was made after the painting untitled Rogomelec, which was sold by Christie's on october 9th 2024 at GBP 907,200. Created in 1978, Rogomelec is an arresting example of Leonor Fini’s fantastical visions. Within a barren land stands a king dressed in an elaborate coat of peacock feathers. Light glints off his dazzling crown. He is magisterial, imperious, royalty incarnated. The painting shares its title with that of Fini’s third novella, first published in 1979; Rogomelec means ‘he who stones the king’. Written in the first person, the story tells of a traveller in a faraway land, home to a decaying monastery-turned-sanatorium, where monks proffer hallucinatory herbal cures, and culminates in an unsettling discovery during a ritual celebration of the king, the subject of the present work.
Born in Buenos Aires, Fini moved to Trieste as a young child. There, she developed an early interest in Renaissance and Mannerist art – the latter’s influence is evident in the elongated figure of Rogomelec – as well as Gustav Klimt, the Pre-Raphaelites, and the German and French Romantics, artists she discovered while riffling through her uncle’s extensive library. Largely self-taught, she moved to Paris in 1931 where she befriended René Magritte, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, and Victor Brauner. Through them, Fini grew close with the Surrealists and participated in their exhibitions, including Peggy Guggenheim’s landmark show 31 Women at her eponymous gallery on West 57 Street in New York.
Like her contemporaries, Fini’s paintings too seem wrenched from a dream and across her works she sought to reconcile the world that she experienced with that of her subconscious mind. In Rogomelec, the king’s clothing is meticulous, and the drama of the ensemble was likely influenced by Fini’s work outside the studio. She created sets and costumes for the ballet, stage, and film; collaborated on performances for the Paris Opéra and La Scala in Milan; and conceived of the bottle and packaging for Elsa Schiaparelli’s perfume...
Category
Mid-20th Century Surrealist Art
