Leonor Fini Argentine-Italian, 1907-1996

Leonor Fini  (b. 1907 Buenos Aires, Argentina - d. 1996 Paris, France) was an Argentine-Italian surrealist painter, designer, illustrator, and author, known for her depictions of powerful and erotic women.

Fini had no formal artistic training, but grew up surrounded by the Renaissance and Mannerist styles of  Italy.

Her first major exhibition was in 1936 at New York's Julian Levy Gallery. Though Fini is part of the pre-war generation of Parisian artists often overlooked in favour of male contemporaries, she was very important in the Surrealist movement. Fini never officially joined it though she did show her work alongside other Surrealist artists. She was included in Peggy Guggenheim's 1943 show Exhibition by 31 Women at the Art of This Century gallery in New York.