Giacomo Casanova Art

Leonor Fini - Cats - Original Engraving Mme.Helvetius' Cats Original etching created in 1985, Printed Signature (LF). Conditions: excellent Edition: 100 Support: Arches paper. Dimensions: Paper dimensions: 44 x 28 cm Editions: Moret, Paris. Leonor Fini is considered one of the most important women artists of the mid-twentieth century, along with Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Meret Oppenheim, Remedios Varo, and Dorothea Tanning – most of whom Fini knew well. Her career, which spanned some six decades, included painting, graphic design, book illustration, product design (the renowned torso-shaped perfume bottle for Schiaparelli’s Shocking), and set and costume design for theatre, ballet, opera, and film. In this compellingly readable, exhaustively researched account, author Peter Webb brings Fini’s provocative art and unconventional personal life, as well as the vibrant avant-garde world in which she revolved, vividly in life. Born in Buenos Aires in 1907 (August 30 – January 18, 1996, Paris) to Italian and Argentine parents, Leonor grew up in Trieste, Italy, raised by her strong-willed, independent mother, Malvina. She was a virtually self-taught artist, learing anatomy directly from studying cadavers in the local morgue and absorbing composition and technique from the Old Masters through books and visits to museums. Fini’s fledging attempts at painting in Trieste let her to Milan, where she participated in her first group exhibition in 1929, and then to Paris in 1931. Her vivacious personality and flamboyant attire instantly garnered her a spotlight in the Parisian art world and she soon developed close relationships with the leading surrealist writers and painters, including Paul Eluard, Salvador Dali, Man Ray, and Max Ernst, who became her lover for a time. The only surrealist she could not abide because of his misogyny was André Breton. Although she repeatedly exhibited with them, she never considered herself a surrealist. The American dealer Julien Levy, very much impressed by Fini’s painting and smitten by her eccentric charms, invited her to New York in 1936, where she took part in a joint gallery exhibition with Max Ernst and met many American surrealists, including Joseph Cornell and Pavel Tchelitchew. Her work was included in MoMA’s pivotal Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism exhibition, along with De Chirico, Dali, Ernst, and Yves Tanguy. In 1939 in Paris she curated an exhibition of surrealist furniture for her childhood friend Leo Castelli for the opening of his first gallery. Introductions to her exhibition catalogues were written by De Chirico, Ernst, and Jean Cocteau. A predominant theme of Fini’s art is the complex relationship between the sexes, primarily the interplay between the dominant female and the passive, androgynous male. In many of her most powerful works, the female takes the form of a sphinx, often with the face of the artist. Fini was also an accomplished portraitist; among her subjects were Stanislao Lepri...

Salvador Dali - Corrida - Vintage Poster with Etching Etching made behind a menu in Restautant Duran as a tribute dinner to Salvador Dali and his wife Ga...

A magnificent forest scene with lush, vast foliage along a brook by a master of the Dutch Golden Age. Amsterdam: c1650. Etching on cream laid paper, 5 1/8 x 5 3/4 inches (130 x 147 ...

Artist: Rembrandt Van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669) Title: Bust of a Man Wearing a High Cap, The Artist's Father Year: 1630 Medium: Etching Paper: Verge paper Image (plate mark) size: ...

This 17th century hand-colored engraving of a lemon entitled "Limon Lavrae", plate 219 from Giovanni Baptista Ferrari's publication "Hesperides, sive, De Malorum Aureorum Cultura Etu...

This large framed 18th century etching by Giovanni Battista Piranesi entitled "Veduta del Mausoleo d'Elio Adriana ora chiamato Castello S. Angelo nella parte opposta alla Facciata de...

"Veduta del Sepolcro della Famiglia Plauzia per la Strada Che Conduce da Roma a Tivoli vicino a Ponte Lugano" from "Le Antichità Romane" (Roman Antiquities), one of the most famous works by Piranesi. "Antichita" illustrates the tombs along the Appian Way...

Rare Botanical Hand Colored Engraving about 1737-1745 Beautifully framed French hand painted mat, in gold leaf frame each print measure 9.5x14.5 with the frame 23.5hx18.5x1 Johann ...

A an impression after Rembrandt's only state of this image. Paris: 1644. Etching and engraving on high quality buff wove paper 4 7/8 x 4 1/2 inches (124 x 114 mm); sheet 12 5/8 x 1...

This large framed 18th century etching by Giovanni Battista Piranesi is entitled "Vaso antico di Marmo adornato di eccellenti Sculture si nella parte anteriere che nell' opposta, le ...

Etching and drypoint on heavy cream laid paper, 3 3/4 x 3 1/4 inches (96 x 83 mm), narrow margins. In very good condition with some minor surface soiling. [Björklund's second state ...

A 17th century hand-colored copper plate engraving entitled "Caryophyllus Maior Sylve Strisvarie Gatus" (Wood Pink & Cottage Pink Flowers) from Basilius Besler's landmark work, Hortus Eystettensis (Garden at Eichstatt), first published in 1613 in Eichstatt, Germany near Nuremberg and later in 1640 and 1713. This engraving is presented in a silver and gold-colored wood frame with a green edge and three elaborate cream-colored French mats...