LEONORA CARRINGTON

(1917-2011)

Two pigs

Footnotes

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Dr. Salomon Grimberg. This work will be included in the forthcoming Leonora Carrington catalogue raisonné of paintings, currently being prepared by Dr. Grimberg.

Provenance
Private collection, UK (acquired in 1982).
Thence by descent to the present owner.

Leonora Carrington had a lifelong affinity with animals. As such, her entire oeuvre can be understood as a bestiary in itself. A verdant cast of mythical creatures, spirits, familiars and exotic pets populates her compositions, from her early experiments with Surrealism in the late 1930s through to her late work which canonised her as a leading Mexican Surrealist. Shortly before these creatures became artistic gateways to her subconscious world however, animals provided familiar environs upon which to stretch her budding talent. Two pigs is a case in point. Painted at the age of 18, as a student at the Chelsea College of Art in London, this early work illustrates a pastoral scene reminiscent of her upbringing in Lancashire. The two pigs are modelled with assertive brushstrokes of pink, orange, brown, green, grey and white, placing them in tonal harmony with their rustic enclosure. Gently nuzzling their snouts together, the creatures engender a naïve romanticism befitting their bucolic surroundings.

Having been expelled from two convent schools as a child, Carrington's parents sent her to Mrs Penrose's Academy of Art in Florence, at which time the 14-year-old steeped herself in the study of art. Subsequently, the fiercely independent 18-year-old Carrington would grow dissatisfied with the traditional ideologies of the Chelsea College of Art, thence persuading her parents to allow her to transfer to the more progressive Ozenfant Academy of Fine Arts. There, under the tutelage of Amédée Ozenfant, she would learn the language and ethos of Surrealism. Two years after executing the present work, Carrington would fall in love with Max Ernst, elope to Paris, and set in motion her path to becoming one of the most influential artists of the Surrealist movement.