Skip to main content

Leonor Fini Paintings

French, 1908-1996

Leonor Fini was the life of the party during the French Surrealist movement. A socialite with connections to some of the movement's biggest names, Fini was also an astoundingly gifted artist in her own right. In fact, many consider her to be the most fiercely independent female artist of the 20th century. A theatrical personality, Fini created prints, paintings and drawings that are widely revered for their sensuous qualities and raw energy.

Fini's life started off in a dramatic fashion, which was perhaps a portent of things to come. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1907, but her parents separated soon after and her mother took her away to Trieste, Italy. Due to her father's attempts to kidnap her, Fini was often dressed as a boy throughout her childhood. 

Fini was surrounded by artistic women in Trieste, and she naturally developed a love for art as well. By the time she was 17, she had become familiar with Renaissance art and Mannerist painting and was exhibiting her own portraits. In 1931, at just 24 years of age, Fini moved to Paris and became acquainted with influential artists Giorgio de Chirico and Carlos Carrà. She also met and started a romantic relationship with Surrealist pioneer Max Ernst, who introduced her to others in the movement.

Though she had no formal art education, Fini proved herself to be both technically masterful and creatively exceptional. Her work and her flamboyant personality attracted the attention of many of the 20th century's most celebrated artists and thinkers, including Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau, Albert Camus and Jean Genet, just to name a very few. She exhibited her work in many Parisian art galleries, including the gallery of Christian Dior before the fashion icon became a designer.

In the 1950s, Fini continued painting while immersing herself in other artistic and dramatic endeavors, including theater costume and mask design. She also designed posters for the Paris Opera and wardrobes for movies.

Fini continued living and painting in Paris for the rest of her life. She died in 1996.

On 1stDibs, find original Leonor Fini prints, paintings and drawings.

to
11
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
11
11
9
11
11
10
6
5
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
10
10
5
5
5
315
787
690
651
578
1
7
11
Artist: Leonor Fini
10a
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Lithograph on Arches paper Exemplaire B/165
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Lithograph

1a
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Lithograph on Arches Exemplaire B/165 Leonor Fini was born in Argentina in 1907 but travelled and lived in Europe with her mother from a young age. By 1931, she was in Paris, in the...
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Lithograph, Archival Paper

Le Concile d'Amour - Gouache on Paper Unique Surrealist Woman Painter, 1968
By Leonor Fini
Located in New York, NY
Leonor Fini Le Concile d'amour, 1968 Gouache on paper 14 1/5 × 11 4/5 in l 36 × 30 cm Frame included - 22 x 18 1/8 in l 56 x 46 cm Signed, counter-signed and titled lower right Cond...
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Gouache

3a
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Lithograph on Arches Exemplaire B/165 Leonor Fini was born in Argentina in 1907 but travelled and lived in Europe with her mother from a young age. By 1931, she was in Paris, in the...
Category

1960s Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Lithograph, Archival Paper

3b
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Lithograph on washi paper Exemplaire B/165 Leonor Fini was born in Argentina in 1907 but travelled and lived in Europe with her mother from a young age. By 1931, she was in Paris, i...
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Lithograph

4a
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Lithograph on Arches paper Exemplaire B/165 Leonor Fini was born in Argentina in 1907 but travelled and lived in Europe with her mother from a young age. By 1931, she was in Paris, ...
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Lithograph

1b
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Lithograph on washi paper Exemplaire B/165 Leonor Fini was born in Argentina in 1907 but travelled and lived in Europe with her mother from a young age. By 1931, she was in Paris, i...
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Lithograph, Washi Paper

9b
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Lithograph on washi paper Exemplaire B/165 Leonor Fini was born in Argentina in 1907 but travelled and lived in Europe with her mother from a young age. By 1931, she was in Paris, i...
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Lithograph, Washi Paper

4b
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Lithograph on washi paper Exemplaire B/165
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Lithograph, Washi Paper

10b
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Lithograph on washi paper Exemplaire B/165
Category

1960s Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Lithograph, Washi Paper

12b
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Lithograph on washi paper Exemplaire B/165 Leonor Fini was born in Argentina in 1907 but travelled and lived in Europe with her mother from a young age. By 1931, she was in Paris, i...
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Lithograph, Washi Paper

Related Items
Synchronized Swimmers, Pop Art Figurative Abstract on Blue
By Marc Foster Grant
Located in Soquel, CA
Vivid contemporary pop art style acrylic painting on paper of two synchronized swimmers posed in unison on a bright blue background by Marc Foster Grant (American, b. 1947), 2007. Th...
Category

Early 2000s Pop Art Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Archival Paper

Two male Nudes. Painting.Pastel, carbon pencil, ink on archival paper mounted
By Celso José Castro Daza
Located in Miami Beach, FL
Two Nudes, 2016 by Celso Castro-Daza One of a kind Pastel, carbon pencil, ink on archival paper mounted on board Image size: 40.5 H in. x 55.5 in. W Mounted on acid-free board: 41 H x 56 in. W Drawing on paper is his basic work tool, some are sketches of his surviving works, others are sketches of moments he documents. ____________ Undefined by medium, Celso Castro’s works each carry the presence of the artist’s hand through the transparency of their process. Castro’s oeuvre is strongly divided between his photomontage assemblies and watercolor paintings: the prior is marked by the labor-intensive deconstruction of portrait photographs and the latter, by the seemingly frenzied recreation of a past encounter rendered in the drips and scribbles of paint and ink. Both discriminating in what they reveal of the subject, his photomontage and watercolor portraits exude raw sexuality through the combination of Castro’s mark-making and gaze. Celso Castro’s work is a bare-bulb erotic photo foray into the underbelly of Colombia’s drug world. Castro’s labor-intensive, photo-collage works of drug kingpins, smugglers, hitmen, countrymen, street vendors, soldiers, paramilitaries, kidnappers, and pimps pose showing with pride their erect penises...
Category

2010s Contemporary Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Carbon Pencil, Oil Pastel

Fine 1700's Italian Old Master Ink & Wash Drawing Roman Allegorical Magnaminita
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
'Mgnaminia' Italian School, 18th century ink and wash drawing on paper, framed within a light oak wood frame (behind glass) image size: 10.5 x 7 inches overall framed: 17 x 13 inches...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Ink, Watercolor, Archival Paper

"Girl with Balloons - Parisian Twilight" Paris Figure Haute Couture Oil on Paper
By Cindy Shaoul
Located in New York, NY
“Girl with Balloons” was created from a vision aritst Cindy Shaoul had during the height of the pandemic. She wanted to create a piece with a light heart but also translate a message...
Category

2010s Abstract Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Oil, Archival Paper

Ochre Emergence
By Kim Frohsin
Located in Burlingame, CA
'Ochre Emergence' by celebrated figurative artist Kim Frohsin, painted in 2018. The artwork is 11 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches and it is professionally framed in a museum quality white ash har...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Ink, Mixed Media, Gouache, Archival Paper

1950s "Pink Lady" Mid Century Gouache Female Nude Painting
Located in Arp, TX
From the estate of Jerry Opper & Ruth Friedman Opper Pink Lady c. 1940-1950's Gouache on Paper 15" x 18", Unframed $1000 *Custom framing available for additional charge. Please expect framing time between 3-5 weeks. From the estate of Ruth Friedmann Opper & Jerry Opper. Ruth was the daughter of Bauhaus artist, Gustav Friedmann...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Modern Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Paper

Fine 1700's Italian Old Master Ink & Wash Drawing Roman Allegorical Napoli
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
'Napoli' Italian School, 18th century ink and wash drawing on paper, framed within a light oak wood frame (behind glass) image size: 10.5 x 7 inches overall framed: 17 x 13 inches co...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Ink, Watercolor, Archival Paper

Simka Simkhovitch WPA Artist Painting Gouache American Modernist Beach Scene
By Simka Simkhovitch
Located in Surfside, FL
Simka Simkhovitch (Russian/American 1893 - 1949) This came with a small grouping from the artist's family, some were hand signed some were not. These were studies for larger paintings. Simka Simkhovitch (Симха Файбусович Симхович) (aka Simka Faibusovich Simkhovich) (Novozybkov, Russia May 21, 1885 O.S./June 2, 1885 N.S.—Greenwich, Connecticut February 25, 1949) was a Ukrainian-Russian Jewish artist and immigrant to the United States. He painted theater scenery in his early career and then had several showings in galleries in New York City. Winning Works Progress Administration (WPA) commissions in the 1930s, he completed murals for the post offices in Jackson, Mississippi and Beaufort, North Carolina. His works are in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born outside Kyiv (Petrograd Ukraine) into a Jewish family who owned a small department store. During a severe case of measles when he was seven, Simcha Simchovitch sketched the views outside his window and decided to become an artist, over his father's objections. Beginning in 1905, he studied at the Grekov Odessa Art School and upon completion of his studies in 1911 received a recommendation to be admitted to the Imperial Academy of Arts. Though he enrolled to begin classes in architecture, painting, and sculpture at the Imperial Academy, he was dropped from the school roster in December because of the quota on the number of Jewish students and drafted into the army. Simchovitch served as a private in the 175th Infantry Regiment Baturyn [ru] until his demobilization in 1912. Re-enrolling in the Imperial Academy, he audited classes. Simka Simkhovitch exhibited paintings and sculptures in 1918 as part of an exhibition of Jewish artists and in 1919 placed 1st in the competition "The Great Russian Revolution" with a painting called "Russian Revolution" which was hung in the State Museum of Revolution. In 1922, Simkha Simkhovitch exhibited at the International Book Fair in Florence (Italian: Fiera Internazionale del Libro di Firenze). In 1924, Simkhovitch came to the United States to make illustrations for Soviet textbooks and decided to immigrate instead. Initially he supported himself by doing commercial art and a few portrait commissions. In 1927, he was hired to paint a screen for a scene in the play "The Command to Love" by Fritz Gottwald and Rudolph Lothar which was playing at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Art dealers began clamoring for the screen and Simkhovitch began a career as a screen painter for the theater. Catching the attention of the screenwriter, Ernest Pascal, he worked as an illustrator for Pascal, who then introduced him to gallery owner, Marie Sterner. Simkhovitch's works appeared at the Marie Sterner Gallery beginning with a 1927 exhibit and were repeated the following year. Simkhovitch had an exhibit in 1929 at Sterner's on circus paintings. In 1931, he held a showing of works at the Helen Hackett Gallery, in New York City and later that same year he was one of the featured artists of a special exhibit in San Francisco at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park. The exhibit was coordinated by Marie Sterner and included four watercolors, including one titled "Nudes". He is of the generation of Russian Soviet artists such as Isaac Pailes, Serge Charchoune, Marc Chagall, Chana Orloff, Isaac Ilyich Levitan, and Ossip Zadkine. In 1936, Simkhovitch was selected to complete the mural for the WPA Post office project in Jackson, Mississippi. The mural was hung in the post office and courthouse in 1938 depicted a plantation theme. Painted on the wall behind the judge’s bench, “Pursuits of Life in Mississippi”, a depiction of black workers engaged in manual labor amid scenes of white professionals and socialites, was eventually covered over in later years during renovations due to its stereotypical African American imagery. Simka painted what he thought was typical of Jackson. His impression of pre-civil rights Mississippi was evidently Greek Revival column houses, weeping willow trees, working class families, and the oppression of African Americans. He painted African American men picking cotton, while a white man took account of the harvest and a white judge advised a white family, calling it Pursuits of Life in Mississippi. Though clearly endorsed by the government and initially generally well-received, the mural soon raised concerns with locals as the climate toward racial segregation began to change. The main concern was whether depictions that show African Americans in subjugated societal roles should be featured in a courtroom. The following year, his painting "Holiday" won praise at an exhibition in Lincoln, Nebraska. In 1940, Simkhovitch's second WPA post office project was completed when four murals, "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat", "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright", "Sand Ponies" and "Canada Geese" were installed in Beaufort, North Carolina. The works were commissioned in 1938 and did not generate the controversy that the Jackson mural had. The main mural is "The Wreck of the Crissie Wright" and depicts a shipwreck which had occurred in Beaufort in 1866. "The Cape Lookout Lighthouse and the Orville W. Mail Boat" depicted the lighthouse built in 1859 and the mail boat that was running mail during the time which Simkhovitch was there. The boat ran mail for the area until 1957. "Sand Ponies" shows the wild horses common to the North Carolina barrier islands and "Canada Geese" showed the importance of hunting and fishing in the area. All four murals were restored in the 1990s by Elisabeth Speight, daughter of two other WPA muralists, Francis Speight...
Category

1930s American Modern Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Gouache, Board

Conversation - XXI Century, Contemporary Figurative Painting, Mixed Media
By Olga Sazykina
Located in Warsaw, PL
Olga Sazykina Russian painter and artist. In the years 2011-2013, she studied in the field of painting under the direction of V. Nevzorov, then in the years 2013-2016 at the Faculty...
Category

2010s Contemporary Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Acrylic, Gouache

1960’s French Surrealist Abstract Collage Oil Painting Nude Figurative Work
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
French Surrealist artist, circa 1960’s oil painting on canvas with stuck on magazine art, unframed canvas: 15 x 18 inches provenance: private collection, Paris condition: overall good
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Oil, Magazine Paper

Nude Figure in a Dimly Lit Interior Resting on a Bed with Sunlight Filtering
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Dimly Lit Nude Interior by Helen Greenfield (British 20th century) gouache painting on artist paper, mounted in a card frame mounted: 14.75 x 19 inches artist paper: 13 x 17 inches...
Category

20th Century Impressionist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Gouache

Women of the World - Bright Colors, Powerful Female Images, Collaged Photos
Located in Chicago, IL
Powerful women from art, music, civil rights, cartoons –all walks of life and fiction unite in this message of connection and empowerment. This brightly colored collage by Chicago ar...
Category

2010s Pop Art Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Photographic Paper

Previously Available Items
Figure surrealiste
By Leonor Fini
Located in Milan, IT
China su carta. Firmato in basso a destra. Al retro è presente timbro di Galleria d'arte e a matita il titolo "Conciliabula". Pittrice, scenografa, costumista, scrittrice, illustrat...
Category

20th Century Contemporary Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

India Ink

Figure surrealiste
Figure surrealiste
H 21.26 in W 17.33 in D 1.38 in
Sexy Cat - Nude Unicorn Cat Woman - Chat Surrealiste
By Leonor Fini
Located in Miami, FL
Leonor Fini creates a hybrid cat-woman-unicorn that is sexy and alluring. Signed lower right. Gouache and pen and ink on paper on heavy textured paper. The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Richard Overstreet...
Category

1940s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Paper, Ink, Gouache, Pen

Portrait of Pao Ying
By Leonor Fini
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Portrait of Pao Ying" is a painting by Surrealist Leonor Fini. The painting is signed lower right, "Leonor Fini". The framed portrait measures 19 7/8 x 14 5/8 x 1 1/2 in. The sitter, Pao Ying (spelled in catalogue raisonne Pao Weng), was a close friend of Leonor Fini. Pao was also an artist, a jewelry designer. This is the only known painting by Fini of a Chinese woman. The frame is original. Leonor Fini (1907 – 1996) was born in Argentina, grew up in Italy, and spent much of her adult life in Paris working alongside such modern masters as Max Ernst, Andre Breton, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and George Balanchine. A self-taught artist, Fini’s work spans many mediums, including drawing, printmaking, costume design, and theatrical sets. As a painter, Fini is typically grouped with European surrealism, although she rejected what she considered the reductive labels of art movements. Nonetheless, Fini’s work engages with the unconscious and includes fantastical scenes with jarring, other-worldly juxtapositions and symbolism. Unlike many surrealists, however, Fini engages deeply with the corporeality of the human body in a way that often subverts gender norms. Fini’s female figures are typically dominant and stoic, while her male figures are eroticized. In other cases, the figures are highly androgynous and eroticized, complicating the way human sexuality is normally presented. Described by many to be particularly tall and commanding in physical appearance with very unusual cat-like eyes, in many ways she was more creaturely than human. Taking the artistic interest in the motif of an animal/human hybrid somewhat literally, she stood as an embodiment of feline transformation and metamorphosis, and came to accurately identify herself with the ancient figure of a Sphinx. Deadly in Greek tradition, whilst benevolent but ferocious in Egyptian stories, the appearance of the mythical creature is symbolic of Fini's love for artifice and nature combined. During her lifetime, Fini’s work was regularly well received and moderately successful. She enjoyed inclusion in the 1936 landmark MOMA exhibition Fantastic, Dada, Surrealism and a show at the Julien Levy gallery in New York. More recently, her art has enjoyed considerably more attention as she undergoes a critical and scholarly re-evaluation. She has been the subject of recent solo exhibitions at the Museum of Sex, New York (2018); the Weinstein Gallery...
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

7b
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Lithograph on washi paper Ed. H.C. X Exemplaire B
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Archival Paper, Lithograph

7b
H 14.5 in W 11 in
7a
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Lithograph on Arches Ed. H.C. X Exemplaire B Leonor Fini was born in Argentina in 1907 but travelled and lived in Europe with her mother from a young age. By 1931, she was in Paris,...
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Lithograph, Archival Paper

7a
7a
H 14.5 in W 11 in
12a
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Lithograph on Arches Ed. H.C. X Exemplaire B Leonor Fini was born in Argentina in 1907 but travelled and lived in Europe with her mother from a young age. By 1931, she was in Paris,...
Category

1960s Surrealist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Lithograph, Archival Paper

1
By Leonor Fini
Located in Columbia, MO
Watercolor on Arches Leonor Fini was born in Argentina in 1907 but travelled and lived in Europe with her mother from a young age. By 1931, she was in Paris, in the full swing of th...
Category

1960s Expressionist Leonor Fini Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Leonor Fini paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Leonor Fini paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Leonor Fini in paper, lithograph, archival paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the Surrealist style. Not every interior allows for large Leonor Fini paintings, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Oleg Turchin, Gigino Falconi, and David Cheifetz. Leonor Fini paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,920 and tops out at $400,000, while the average work can sell for $1,920.
Questions About Leonor Fini Paintings
  • 1stDibs ExpertAugust 29, 2024
    Yes, Leonor Fini was a Surrealist. Though she had no formal art education, Fini proved to be both technically masterful and creatively exceptional. Her work and her flamboyant personality attracted the attention of many of the 20th century's most celebrated artists and thinkers, including Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau, Albert Camus and Jean Genet. She exhibited her work in many Parisian art galleries, including the gallery of Christian Dior, before the fashion icon became a designer. On 1stDibs, explore a variety of Leonor Fini art.

Recently Viewed

View All