Leonor Fini, Sphinx Ariene, grabado, 1970

Rare print handsigned and numered by surrealist artist Leonor Fini, now rediscovered and inscreasingly esteemed with the movement of rediscovering art by women. It depicts a mythological creature called Sphinge or Sphinx, an legendary animal that also inspired Claude Lalanne and Leonora Carrington, two other main surrealist artists. It is a variation based on a painting (Sphinx Ariene, sold a few years ago at Bonhams). Leonor Fini was the life of the party during the Surrealist movement. Many consider her to be the most fiercely independent female artist of the 20th century. By the time she was 17, she had become familiar with Renaissance art and Mannerist painting. In 1931, at just 24 years of age, Fini moved to Paris and became acquainted with influential artists Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà. She also met and started a romantic relationship with Surrealist pioneer Max Ernst, who introduced her to others in the movement. Her work and her flamboyant personality attracted the attention of many of the 20th century's most celebrated artists and thinkers, including Salvador Dalí, Jean Cocteau, Albert Camus and Jean Genet, just to name a very few. She exhibited her work in many Parisian art galleries, including the gallery of Christian Dior before the fashion icon became a designer.