FINI (Léonor). - Lot 95

FINI (Léonor). Born in Buenos-Aires. 1908-1996. Italian-born surrealist painter, illustrator and theater designer. Wife of Pieyre de Mandiargues. Associated with Dali, Georges Bataille, Éluard and Max Ernst. L.A.S. "Léonor F" to Pierre Besse. S.l.n.d. [1961]. 6 pages in-folio on cream vellum. Beautiful and rare letter from the painter Léonor Fini: ...I received a letter from a guy who is doing a book on theater sets and asked me for photos of models or stage photos, I'm embarrassed here I have nothing. If you please go to my house, you'll find a grey box intended for records (a classic object) in the chaos of the library (perhaps on the floor) containing a certain number of photos of the sets... She recommends that he retrieve the photos of Le Garçon d'honneur (after Wilde) and, if he can't, to telephone ...the photographer Pic. To Pic you ask him to show you (he must have in his files) all the different photos of several shows, including the set I did (...) of Wilde... It is quite urgent, she specifies, that the photographs arrive at Théâtre 7 rue Heder before June 20, 1961, while prescribing a certain number of indications to be transferred on them: ...Behind "garçon d'honneur" it is necessary to write May 1960. Wilde's title adapted by Blondin and Guimard Directed by C. Barma. Théâtre Marigny Paris (...) You should also write that the owner of the model is Madame Volterra, and that she can lend it for color photography. If it's "La Mégère", write: adaptateur Audiberti, metteur en scène Vitalis année novembre 1958 (...) Since Pic perhaps doesn't remember what my sets are, we should recall any shows photographed by Pic in which I was the author Eté et Fumée (T. Williams) (Théâtre de l'œuvre - Volupté de lhonneur A. Paulain) - (Pirandello Mercure -Th St Georges) Bérénice (Racine Barma Marigny) (...) Bonnes (Serrault Odéon)... The best, in her opinion, were the photographs of Le Garçon d'honneur [a play adapted from Oscar Wilde's short story The Crime of Lord Arthur Savile] and those taken during the performance of Jean Genet's Les Bonnes...