Leonora Carrington (British, 1917 -)

The Lancastrian-born Leonora Carrington first studied painting at Mrs Penrose’s Academy of Art in Florence and Ozenfants Art School in London in 1936. It was here that Carrington met and fell in love with the artist Max Ernst, and together they moved to Paris where she became friendly with Picasso, Dali and other prominent painters. The following year Carrington and Ernst moved to Provence, but at the outbreak of World War II Ernst was detained and Carrington suffered a complete breakdown, spending several months in Santander Lunatic Asylum, and in 1942 moved to New York, settling later in Mexico. A leading exponent of Surrealism, described by Dali as ‘the most important female artist’, Carrington’s work has a strong sense of fantasy and mystery. Her first major exhibition was at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York in 1947, and she has exhibited in Mexico City, New York, San Francisco, Paris, London, Munich and Tokyo.