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| Grandmother Moorhead's Aromatic Kitchen 1975 The Charles B. Goddard Center for Visual and Performing Arts, Ardmore, Oklahoma |
Leonora Carrington may have inherited her curious imagination from her Irish mother. Her grandmother Moorhead provided the title for the picture of a kitchen above, where enigmatic figures prepare the cooking of a huge goose. Alchemy pervades her work. The kitchen- traditional place of woman- becomes a place for sorcery.
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| Dando de comer a una mesa (Feeding a table) 1959 Private Collection |
Two children are secretly watching a mysterious lady, seated on a giant sparrow, feeding a pearl to an eagle stuck in a table. The plates on the shelf are also watching! Leonora Carrington fits well the description of "Surrealist"- painter of dreams. Her painting entitled "The Lovers" is enigmatic: a red king and a blue queen prepare a ceremonial rite inside a mysterious house of sand against a cosmic background:
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| The Lovers 1987 FAMM (Femmes Artistes du Musée de Mougins)/The Levett Collection |
From her early days in England, Leonora drew imaginary beasts, helped by visits to the zoo. She rebelled against becoming a society debutante, preferring to spend many happy hours teaching French to a hyena! Leonora had already produced an illustrated notebook called "Animals of a Different Planit"(sic) when she was about ten years old:
In her personal bestiary, she used the hyena to represent her rebelliousness (she was expelled three times from Catholic schools) and the white horse to represent her freedom and wildness. Her middle-class father did not approve of her being an artist. Recollections of her English childhood are contained in her works. The following scene shows a forest hunting breakfast, where an Edwardian gentleman appears to be offering a meal in the forest to a goddess figure with a triangle for a head:
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| Edwardian Hunt Breakfast 1956 (Private Collection) |
Leonora is evoking here scenes of the hunt from her middle class British background. The picture is at the same time calm and disturbing. When she met Max Ernst, it was the meeting of two similar minds. She was introduced to his work on the occasion of the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London. She fell in love with his work, then the following year with the man himself. Having escaped her disapproving father by going down to Cornwall, the lovers moved to Paris, to the rue Jacob. A major complication was that Ernst was married to Marie-Berthe Aurenche. Down South in Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche, the couple shared a house where they decorated the doors and window shutters with hybrid creatures:
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| Window at Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche 1938 Private Collection |
The happy couple were photographed by Lee Miller in 1939 :
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| Lee Miller: Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst, Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche 1939 |
The exhibition has a work by Ernst loaned from Chicago. The second world war by this time had taken its toll. The couple were both in distress, Ernst in a prison camp and Leonora held in a psychiatric hospital in Spain having been raped by Spanish Republican soldiers. The treatment the doctors gave her was horrific. In Ernst's picture, Carrington flees the doctor and a large horse, casting aside a handkerchief which takes on the form of a bird- Max Ernst's alter ego was a bird. Her dress is in tatters:
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| Max Ernst: Spanish Physician 1940 The Art Institute of Chicago |
Her rebelliousness and dreams found expression in her many writings such as La Dame Ovale (The Oval Woman), illustrated by Max Ernst collages. The following painting by Carrington gives a nightmarish view of herself and Ernst. He is astride a rocking horse- meaningful to Leonora as her father burned hers when she was a child as punishment. Ernst bought her another one at the flea market. In the painting, the nuptial bed is open to the elements and held up by spectral figures:
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| Garden Bedroom 1941 Collecciòn UGARIT Panama |
Carrington ended up in Mexico, marrying the man with whom she escaped from wartime Europe- Mexican writer Renato Leduc. They had met in Paris. They frequented other exiles including the "pope" of Surrealism- André Breton.
Mexico was the perfect place for Surrealists. Leonora Carrington lived there for the rest of her life, becoming fluent in Spanish.
Just after her arrival from Europe in New York, she produced a work inspired by Hieronymus Bosch, seen in Madrid. Carrington's devil is a serene hieratic figure, expressing harmony:
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| Las tentaciones de San Antonio (The Temptations of Saint Anthony) 1945 Private Collection |
Carrington imagined her own version of the Tarot cards. This is a personal vision of the world combining ancient myths, feminist symbolism and Mesoamerican influence:
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| Arcanes Majeurs (Major Arcana) 1950s (facsmile 2024) Private Collection |
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| Goddess bronze 2008 Private Collection |
Mysterious, humorous, feminist with an interest in myths of all ages and countries, this is part of the make up of Leonora Carrington- a fascinating woman and artist. The exhibition gives us a taste of her complex character.
"Leonora Carrington"
At the Musée du Luxembourg (Senate), 19 rue de Vaugirard, Paris 6e.
From 18th February until 19th July 2026
Open only during exhibitions from 10.30am until 7pm daily.
Late opening on Mondays until 10pm.
Metro: Saint Sulpice RER: Luxembourg
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