The Shocking Affair of Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst (1937 - 1941)
It reads like an episode of Downton Abbey - a young debutante runs off to France with a dashing painter (27 years her senior and married) to live a bohemian lifestyle in pursuit of art until he is arrested, abandons her and escapes to America.
In 1936, Harold and Maurie Carrington already had some warning that their daughter Leonora was not going to conform to their expectations when they presented her at court. She had burned through a succession of tutors and governesses and been expelled from two convent schools. Leonora did not care to be presented at Buckingham Palace. She found the lessons on how to walk tedious and brought a book to read when she got bored.
What did interest Leonora was surrealist art. She had seen the paintings of German Surrealist Max Ernst at an exhibition in London and felt drawn to them. She was studying painting too and surrealism had become the new obsession of her young heart.
Max Ernst, L'Ange du Foyer, 1937
In 1937, Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst met at a dinner party. The scene is not hard to imagine - a 47 year old artist meets a charming 19 year old fan who is itching to rebel against convention. The attraction was immediate and Leonora defied her parents and ran away from her home to travel with Max back to France where he broke from his second wife and the two set up house together surrounded by other surrealists, spending their days painting canvases of each other and discussing art with the likes of Picasso, Duchamp, and Miró.
Stories of Leonora have her showing up naked to a party and serving her guests 'hair omelettes' made with chunks of their own hair that she had cut off the night before.
Leonora's paintings from this time reflect a maturing style and she delved into the myths and creatures described to her as a girl listening to her mother's Irish folk tales. Her first truly Surrealistic painting, a self portrait called The Inn of the Dawn Horse was painted during this period.
Leonora Carrington, The Inn of the Dawn Horse, c. 1937 - 38
Stories differ about what happened next. Some sources say that Ernst was interned by French authorities in 1940 because he was German and therefore an 'undesirable alien' in France. Others say that he was detained by the Gestapo after Germany invaded France because they felt his art was 'degenerate'. Some say that he was arrested both times.
We do know he escaped arrest with the help of American art patron Peggy Guggenheim. They arrived in America together and were married in 1941, leaving Leonora alone in France.
She was devastated. Not knowing what to do, she sold the house for a few francs, set her pet eagle free, and travelled in a friend's Fiat to Spain where anxiety, delusions and a likely eating disorder culminated in a massive breakdown at the British Embassy in Madrid.
She was committed to a psychiatric hospital where she endured electroshock therapy and experimental drugs. This was a dark time for Leonora and images from this period are reflected in her work late into her life.
The story would have ended there if Leonora hadn't had such an unbreakable spirit. Her father had arranged for a business colleague to accompany Leonora to a sanatorium in South Africa. Leonora escaped from her minders, hailed a taxi and directed it to the Mexican Embassy where her friend through Picasso, Renato LeDuc, worked as ambassador.
Renato married Leonora to shelter her with diplomatic immunity and together they travelled to Mexico. This was the beginning of Leonora's life as an important figure in history as an artist, writer and founding force behind the Women's Liberation Movement in Mexico.
Although Leonora and Max both divorced their spouses soon after coming to the Americas, they never resumed their relationship.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonora_Carrington
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Ernst
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-carrington-leonora.htm
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/nazis-nannies-and-hair-omelettes-leonora-carrington-the-last-living-surrealist-looks-back-on-her-1774386.html
http://www.everypainterpaintshimself.com/article/carringtons_self_portrait_c.1937_8
https://arthistoryproject.com/artists/leonora-carrington/
Wow what a crazy story!
Carrington was better off. I appreciate Ernst's contributions to Surrealism, but his personality always has rubbed me the wrong way.
No one seems to agree on how many wives he had and even after he divorced them, they still hung around. It is interesting to note that he is always a big figure in Carrington's story while she is often only a sentence or two in his. Great comment!