Leonora Carrington (1917-2011)
Leonora Carrington (1917-2011)

Still Life

Details
Leonora Carrington (1917-2011)
Still Life
oil oil on canvas
18 ¼ x 14 in. (46.5 x 35.5 cm.)
Painted in 1935.
Provenance
Marie Moorhead Carrington collection, Isle of Man (acquired directly from the artist).
Harold (Pat) Moorhead Francis Carrington collection, Isle of Man (acquired from the above).
Stephanie Bonte Carrington collection, Isle of Man (by descent from the above).
Anon. sale, Leyburn, North Yorkshire, Tennants Auctioneers, 17 July 2015, lot 775.
Private collection, Sotherton, United Kingdom (acquired from the above).




Exhibited
Leeds, United Kingdom, Leeds College of Art, Leonora Carrington in the Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art and Natural History, 15 July-2 September 2016, p. 13 (illustrated in color). This exhibition also traveled to London, The Viktor Wynd Museum, September-December 2016.

Lot Essay

We are grateful to Dr. Salomon Grimberg for his assistance cataloguing this work.


In 1935, at the age of eighteen, Leonora Carrington left the comfort of her family home in the north of England and moved to London where she immersed herself in her studies as a painter. She first attended the Chelsea School of Art and later the Ozenfant Academy. The latter Academy was led by the French painter Amédée Ozenfant who had co-founded the Purism movement which advocated a more subdued version of Cubism. As art historian Susan Aberth well states, "on the surface [Ozenfant's] academy would appear a highly unlikely environment to teach Carrington, with her propensity towards fantasy and narrative."[1] However Carrington thrived under Ozenfant's mentorship. The present work dates from this period, and provides a rare glimpse into the young artist's promising, yet still developing style.

1 S. L. Aberth, Leonora Carrington, Surrealism, Alchemy and Art (Hampshire: Lund Humphries, 2004), 21.

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