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The Surreal Life of Leonora Carrington
A personal biography of Leonora Carrington, the debutante who ran away to Mexico and became one of the world's most significant surrealist artists.
In 2006 journalist Joanna Moorhead discovered that her father's cousin, Prim, who had disappeared many decades earlier, was now a famous artist in Mexico. Intrigued by her story, Joanna set off to Mexico City to find her lost relation.
Leonora told Joanna the wild and amazing truth about a life that had taken her from the suffocating existence of a debutante in London via war-torn France with her lover, Max Ernst, to incarceration in an asylum and finally to the life of a recluse in Mexico City.
Leonora was one of the last surviving participants in the Surrealist movement of the 1930s, a founding member of the Women's Liberation Movement in Mexico during the 1970s and a woman whose reputation will survive not only as a muse but as a novelist and a great artist. This book is the extraordinary story of Leonora Carrington's life, and of the friendship between two women, related by blood but previously unknown to one another, whose encounters were to change both their lives.
In 2006 journalist Joanna Moorhead discovered that her father's cousin, Prim, who had disappeared many decades earlier, was now a famous artist in Mexico. Intrigued by her story, Joanna set off to Mexico City to find her lost relation.
Leonora told Joanna the wild and amazing truth about a life that had taken her from the suffocating existence of a debutante in London via war-torn France with her lover, Max Ernst, to incarceration in an asylum and finally to the life of a recluse in Mexico City.
Leonora was one of the last surviving participants in the Surrealist movement of the 1930s, a founding member of the Women's Liberation Movement in Mexico during the 1970s and a woman whose reputation will survive not only as a muse but as a novelist and a great artist. This book is the extraordinary story of Leonora Carrington's life, and of the friendship between two women, related by blood but previously unknown to one another, whose encounters were to change both their lives.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2017
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February 16, 2026Thankfully Leonora Carrington’s life and work is so bright that Joanna Moorhead’s terrible storytelling cannot stifle it. But goodness does she try!!!! Another tile on Anna Pontin’s Winter Bingo
April 16, 2026
A third rate biography of an incomparable talent. Get Susan L Aberth's Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art instead, you'll get most of the life story there too and more of the art, more insight into the art, and no lightweight Guardian columnist prose.
August 2, 2026
I think a friend introduced me Leonora Carrington's surrealist artwork years ago and it was love at first sight. Her mysterious gothic visions contain so many details that the viewer practically gets pulled into them. I also loved her novel, The Hearing Trumpet, so it was clearly time to read a biography. This one has the distinctive feature of being written by her journalist cousin, who only discovered their relationship by chance in 2006. Leonora Carrington (I must use both names in order to avoid confusing her with Dora Carrington of the Bloomsbury group) fell out with her parents in 1937 and remained estranged from them. She never lived in Britain again and by the time Moorhead made contact had long been settled in Mexico City, where her art was well-known. Moorhead visited frequently to spend time with her cousin before Leonora Carrington died in 2011 aged 94. This biography is therefore suffused with fondness and admiration for a beloved and inspiring relative. It is also full of little asides from their chats:
Moorhead provides an engaging and highly readable narrative of Leonora Carrington's exciting life. I must also praise the pictures included; five of the photographs are gorgeous shots by Lee Miller. Moorhead makes clear that Leonora Carrington lived exclusively on her own terms. A love affair with Max Ernst brought her into the surrealist set, but she never let her life or art be overshadowed by a man. She defied the expectations of her wealthy and conventional family, moved across the globe to escape the Second World War, and established herself as a respected artist in Mexico and America. She was married twice, had two children, and remained friends with many surrealist artists until she was the only one left alive. She comes across as a charismatic, deeply imaginative, driven, and uncompromising person. Although her art is much loved and sought-after, she was never interested in fame or publicity so thought Moorhead was joking when told how much her paintings had sold for. (The Giantess fetched $1,483,500 in 2009.) Learning about the events in her life that informed and inspired her writing and painting has given me a deeper appreciation for her work. I've seen her wonderful portrait of Max Ernst at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and now want to view it again with knowledge of the context.
The other guests that summer were the Powells: Joan, Leonora's friend from the Florence finishing school they attended together in 1935 ('she was the first person I ever heard say the word "fuck",' Leonora told me)...
Moorhead provides an engaging and highly readable narrative of Leonora Carrington's exciting life. I must also praise the pictures included; five of the photographs are gorgeous shots by Lee Miller. Moorhead makes clear that Leonora Carrington lived exclusively on her own terms. A love affair with Max Ernst brought her into the surrealist set, but she never let her life or art be overshadowed by a man. She defied the expectations of her wealthy and conventional family, moved across the globe to escape the Second World War, and established herself as a respected artist in Mexico and America. She was married twice, had two children, and remained friends with many surrealist artists until she was the only one left alive. She comes across as a charismatic, deeply imaginative, driven, and uncompromising person. Although her art is much loved and sought-after, she was never interested in fame or publicity so thought Moorhead was joking when told how much her paintings had sold for. (The Giantess fetched $1,483,500 in 2009.) Learning about the events in her life that informed and inspired her writing and painting has given me a deeper appreciation for her work. I've seen her wonderful portrait of Max Ernst at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and now want to view it again with knowledge of the context.
June 6, 2019
Being a fan of the surrealist art movement I was especially interested to read this biography of one of its few female artists. Written by a long lost relative of Leonora who discovered her by chance, the book is also part memoir. Moorhead provides a moving, easy to read account of her truly fascinating and surreal life; alongside this she describes their meetings and the development of their relationship. Although not an academic book, anyone interested in surrealism will enjoy the read.
January 23, 2021
Maybe, even 3.5⭐.
So, the life of Leonora Carrington is FASCINATING!! Really, what a life. You get a good grab of her early life, and the events that took the British-born artist to France, Spain, Lisbon, the US (escaping from WWII) and finally Mexico, where she spent a great share of her life. You don't have to agree with her decisions, nor she gives (or the book) many reasons behind why she did what she did, but you will admire her passion and strength. Now, I'm not sure the writing was strong enough, the book is very simplistic, throwing names here and there, overusing some phrases (i mean she mentions Leonora's hair, in my opinion, more than what was necessary). Anyway, good thing is that the book left me wanting for more, so I will look for a proper biography and for sure read L. Carringtong texts and stories mentioned in the book!
So, the life of Leonora Carrington is FASCINATING!! Really, what a life. You get a good grab of her early life, and the events that took the British-born artist to France, Spain, Lisbon, the US (escaping from WWII) and finally Mexico, where she spent a great share of her life. You don't have to agree with her decisions, nor she gives (or the book) many reasons behind why she did what she did, but you will admire her passion and strength. Now, I'm not sure the writing was strong enough, the book is very simplistic, throwing names here and there, overusing some phrases (i mean she mentions Leonora's hair, in my opinion, more than what was necessary). Anyway, good thing is that the book left me wanting for more, so I will look for a proper biography and for sure read L. Carringtong texts and stories mentioned in the book!
June 16, 2017
From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:
Leonora Carrington, born in 1917, was the last surviving member of the Surrealist movement of the 1930s. A prodigious painter and writer, she was caught up in some of the most exciting - and most terrible - events of the 20th century. Joanna Moorhead tells the remarkable life story of her father's cousin.
At the age of 17, Leonora Carrington rejected her upper class English upbringing and her family, in favour of the bohemian life of an artist, first in London and then Paris. She became the lover and muse of Max Ernst, and friend of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and many other creative geniuses. Soon after the outbreak of the war however, she suffered a mental breakdown and ended up in an asylum in Madrid. She eventually escaped war-torn Europe by marrying a Mexican, which enabled her passage to New York, and from there she journeyed to Mexico where she lived out the rest of her life.
Mexico is where Joanna Moorhead went to find Leonora in 2006. During Joanna's childhood, all she knew was that her father's cousin had been a wild child who had caused the family no end of trouble and "simply flounced off into the sunset". But this first visit of many was the start of a life-changing friendship. During days of talking and reading, of drinking tea and tequila, of going for walks and eating in local restaurants Leonora told Joanna her amazing life story.
This book is the story of Leonora Carrington's life, and of the relationship between two women. And it's about Surrealism as Leonora lived it - a way of approaching the world in a spirit of constant curiosity, with the desire to work out, if not the answers, then at least some of the questions.
Read by Juliet Stevenson
Written and introduced by Joanna Moorhead
Abridged by Sara Davies
Directed by Alexa Moore
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08slp5t
Leonora Carrington, born in 1917, was the last surviving member of the Surrealist movement of the 1930s. A prodigious painter and writer, she was caught up in some of the most exciting - and most terrible - events of the 20th century. Joanna Moorhead tells the remarkable life story of her father's cousin.
At the age of 17, Leonora Carrington rejected her upper class English upbringing and her family, in favour of the bohemian life of an artist, first in London and then Paris. She became the lover and muse of Max Ernst, and friend of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali and many other creative geniuses. Soon after the outbreak of the war however, she suffered a mental breakdown and ended up in an asylum in Madrid. She eventually escaped war-torn Europe by marrying a Mexican, which enabled her passage to New York, and from there she journeyed to Mexico where she lived out the rest of her life.
Mexico is where Joanna Moorhead went to find Leonora in 2006. During Joanna's childhood, all she knew was that her father's cousin had been a wild child who had caused the family no end of trouble and "simply flounced off into the sunset". But this first visit of many was the start of a life-changing friendship. During days of talking and reading, of drinking tea and tequila, of going for walks and eating in local restaurants Leonora told Joanna her amazing life story.
This book is the story of Leonora Carrington's life, and of the relationship between two women. And it's about Surrealism as Leonora lived it - a way of approaching the world in a spirit of constant curiosity, with the desire to work out, if not the answers, then at least some of the questions.
Read by Juliet Stevenson
Written and introduced by Joanna Moorhead
Abridged by Sara Davies
Directed by Alexa Moore
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08slp5t
November 20, 2024
Considering I got to read this at work it was highly enjoyable - and it was a nice whistlestop tour of Carrington’s life. I did find the way that the author’s bias to Carrington manifested a little jarring at times - eg when she says that Carrington was the only one of 150 debutantes to have any personal ambition 🫥. Bit of a sweeping and not to mention misogynistic statement 🤷♀️. There were various things I felt I needed to take with a pinch of salt 🧂 because they felt a little self-indulgent. Was a fun read though! Also 100% the final act of Juliette willoughby takes SERIOUS inspiration from Carrington so v interesting to think back on that.
April 4, 2021
La biógrafa constuye un relato muy emocionante sobre la vida de Leonora. Nos lleva a través de la vida de una rebelde que construyó su propio mundo y cuestionó cualquier límite del arte y la vida. Con una biografía como ésta, tan íntima, me queda claro que el autor y su obra son una cosa indivisible. Que la obra no puede separarse de su creadora. Leonora Carrington nos hechiza al igual con sus obras que con su contestación hacia la vida.
March 29, 2019
Excellent but I want more. A very good overall summary of an amazing talent and an absorbing life. I would have loved more detail of so much but at the same time recognise that there has to be limits. I am glad to have read it
March 5, 2026
Aunque no me gusta mucho el tono en el que está escrito (la autora, es familiar de Leonora Carrington y se nota porque no nos muestra un retrato objetivo, más bien un poco idolatrado de la artista), conocer más su obra y su historia me ha parecido interesante.
Un detalle que aprecio como fan de las listas: el registro detallado de dónde encontrar su obra para poder disfrutarla en persona, algo que favorece el dar a conocer más a una creadora que nunca supo hacerse publicidad y que tampoco lo tuvo fácil. Es corto pero yo soy una lectora tortuga y algunos episodios se me han hecho pesados.
Un detalle que aprecio como fan de las listas: el registro detallado de dónde encontrar su obra para poder disfrutarla en persona, algo que favorece el dar a conocer más a una creadora que nunca supo hacerse publicidad y que tampoco lo tuvo fácil. Es corto pero yo soy una lectora tortuga y algunos episodios se me han hecho pesados.
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April 3, 2017Leonora Carrington was born in 1917, the same year as the word 'surrealism', and presented as a debutante to George V, but lived long enough for the author to Google her shortly before they became friends as well as cousins. There were times when I wondered whether a writer who generally handles family stuff for the Guardian was the best person to tell this story - the introductory line about how "in the end, as with all journeys, the real travelling happened inside myself, in my heart, as it had for Leonora" didn't bode well. But for the most part, aside from the later description of Mexico as a country of contradictions (thanks, Bart), this drift towards cosy cliche is resisted. Knowing families in general, and this family in particular, enables Moorhead to make a few compelling diagnoses, such as the suggestion that growing up with three brothers and no sister might have been a significant factor in Carrington's later character. And certainly when you read about Leonora hanging out with the Surrealists, impressed by them but never overawed despite the age difference and their tendency to reduce women to muses*, you know there must have been something remarkable to her sheer strength of character. The heart of the book is Carrington's whirlwind romance with Max Ernst, which Moorhead treats as the grand love which it clearly was to both painters, while never shying away from that age difference, or how common such a relationship seemed to be on the Surrealist scene, or the fact that a very similar story had gone down between Ernst and his second wife, who not surprisingly took against Leonora in a big way. Indeed, one of the notes I made which funnily enough didn't make it into my main press review of this book reads simply 'Max Ernst - massive slag'. In particular his taking up with Peggy Guggenheim, who had previously been Carrington's first buyer, does seem a bit much.
Still. Whenever Carrington didn't like her situation, she was damn good at making an escape. From the repressive background of a family more interested in hunt balls than art or literature, to London. Thence, when her father tried to get Ernst deported, to an idyllic Surrealist summer camp in Cornwall which sounds like the dream of a perfect holiday, one of those brief timeless moments when for a little while the world is the way it should be. To Paris, and then further into France once ex-wives and Surrealist factionalism got too much, and then over the border to Iberia once the blitzkrieg comes calling. And from Lisbon, which Moorhead paints as more Casablanca than Casablanca ever was, to the Americas. Whence eventually Carrington would have to flee again, on the lam in her fifties, after protesting the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre which finally confirmed the modern Olympics as the irretrievable force for evil they've become. And yet it never becomes mere travelogue, or a story of all the more famous people Carrington knew; we're always privy to Leonora's interior life too, to the work and the strange otherworlds it depicts, which have always reminded me of Bosch once the riots he depict exhaust themselves and the melancholy aftermath sets in. For the most part Moorhead writes perceptively about the paintings, though she can be a little keen to ascribe firm meanings to their symbols, and was maybe a little too straight-faced in the section on Ernst and Carrington's interest in frottage, which I'm prepared to believe is an artistic technique too but it didn't half give me the giggles. Still, deadpan is the right way to play it when Moorhead talks about the wide gap in recent auction values for comparable works by Ernst and Carrington; the wage gap is alive and well even after the artists died, and no editorialising is needed for the injustice to be clear. Hopefully the centenary, and this biography-cum-memoir, will help give Carrington the same sustained revival her friend Frida Kahlo eventually managed.
*Having recently read the Modern Lovers 33 1/3, I was particularly amused by the sections where, albeit not in so many words, Pablo Picasso tries to pick up girls, and Carrington calls him an asshole.
Still. Whenever Carrington didn't like her situation, she was damn good at making an escape. From the repressive background of a family more interested in hunt balls than art or literature, to London. Thence, when her father tried to get Ernst deported, to an idyllic Surrealist summer camp in Cornwall which sounds like the dream of a perfect holiday, one of those brief timeless moments when for a little while the world is the way it should be. To Paris, and then further into France once ex-wives and Surrealist factionalism got too much, and then over the border to Iberia once the blitzkrieg comes calling. And from Lisbon, which Moorhead paints as more Casablanca than Casablanca ever was, to the Americas. Whence eventually Carrington would have to flee again, on the lam in her fifties, after protesting the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre which finally confirmed the modern Olympics as the irretrievable force for evil they've become. And yet it never becomes mere travelogue, or a story of all the more famous people Carrington knew; we're always privy to Leonora's interior life too, to the work and the strange otherworlds it depicts, which have always reminded me of Bosch once the riots he depict exhaust themselves and the melancholy aftermath sets in. For the most part Moorhead writes perceptively about the paintings, though she can be a little keen to ascribe firm meanings to their symbols, and was maybe a little too straight-faced in the section on Ernst and Carrington's interest in frottage, which I'm prepared to believe is an artistic technique too but it didn't half give me the giggles. Still, deadpan is the right way to play it when Moorhead talks about the wide gap in recent auction values for comparable works by Ernst and Carrington; the wage gap is alive and well even after the artists died, and no editorialising is needed for the injustice to be clear. Hopefully the centenary, and this biography-cum-memoir, will help give Carrington the same sustained revival her friend Frida Kahlo eventually managed.
*Having recently read the Modern Lovers 33 1/3, I was particularly amused by the sections where, albeit not in so many words, Pablo Picasso tries to pick up girls, and Carrington calls him an asshole.
October 12, 2020
Wow, what a forceful personality she was! I really didn't know anything about Carrington before reading this book. I love how she pushed back against merely being a muse to an artist and instead insisted that she was an artist herself.
The section of the book about how she & Max Ernst escaped from Nazi occupied France could be an entire book unto itself. Someone should really write a historical fiction novel about what happened. If it was fiction, people would say it was too far-fetched, but it really happened.
I feel like the book started growing weak about two thirds of the way into it. There was so much detail about Carrington's life up to the early 60s. The 1960s-2000s is then rather hurriedly glossed over. I wonder if it was because she died before she could finish telling the author all about that part of her life?
Anyone interested in the European & American art world of the twentieth century should read this to get a woman's perspective on the Surrealist movement.
The section of the book about how she & Max Ernst escaped from Nazi occupied France could be an entire book unto itself. Someone should really write a historical fiction novel about what happened. If it was fiction, people would say it was too far-fetched, but it really happened.
I feel like the book started growing weak about two thirds of the way into it. There was so much detail about Carrington's life up to the early 60s. The 1960s-2000s is then rather hurriedly glossed over. I wonder if it was because she died before she could finish telling the author all about that part of her life?
Anyone interested in the European & American art world of the twentieth century should read this to get a woman's perspective on the Surrealist movement.
February 28, 2023
One of the most touching works I’ve ever read. Leonora lived an incredibly rich and interesting life that even people who aren’t particularly interested in art history will take something of value from this book. It was written with palpable admiration and profound care, which is only fitting for one of the greatest Surrealists who ever lived.
Moorhead’s writing is a triumph in that she weaves the threads of human relationships, history, art, feminism, and class analysis seemingly effortlessly — all to create the mesmerising tapestry that is Leonora’s story. It moved me so deeply, and I would recommend it to anybody.
Moorhead’s writing is a triumph in that she weaves the threads of human relationships, history, art, feminism, and class analysis seemingly effortlessly — all to create the mesmerising tapestry that is Leonora’s story. It moved me so deeply, and I would recommend it to anybody.
January 9, 2024
I read Carrington's Down Below last year and also watched the BBC's documentary Leonora Carrington: The Lost Surrealist, so it's safe to say I was pretty familiar with the overview of her life. Yet this biography provided additional depth, especially when it came to her later years. This edition's postscript was also a great addition, as it explored her time in Chicago during the 1980s. The fact that Moorhead also discussed her prose made for a more nuanced read, because Carrington wasn't only an artist. Was the writing the most groundbreaking or poetic? No—too many semicolons, too much repetition when it came to describing Leonora's physical features. But it did the job, and I felt the author's love and admiration for her cousin. Would definitely like to try out Carrington's short stories and her book The Hearing Trumpet.
July 20, 2023
No se me podría ocurrir un mejor título para esta biografía, y es que la vida de Leonora Carrington, bien podría ser una novela surrealista. Vaya vida! Si de algo puedo estar segura, es que fue de todo, menos aburrida. Qué mujer tan interesante y admirable, adelantada a su época, rebelde por naturaleza, pero también con un amplio sentido de justicia y equidad, feminista por convicción, artista de corazón y mexicana por decisión. Nunca se fue por el camino fácil, sino por el que le dictó su corazón, aunque eso le representara romper lazos familiares y con ellos, dejar atrás una vida de riqueza y comodidad. Poseedora de una belleza que a veces más bien le estorbó, se negó a ser musa y a vivir a la sombra de nadie y luchó por tener el lugar que le correspondía dentro del movimiento surrealista. Leonora, pasas a la historia como una grande… ¿acaso te enteras en donde estés, cómo sigues influyendo en este mundo?
“Y así, su vida no estuvo limitada como suelen estarlo las vidas de las personas. Pero vivir de forma intrépida tenía su precio, […] y, si hay una moraleja en su historia, es esa. Los seres humanos podemos vivir con más imaginación y más libertad de las que suponemos, pero nada es gratis: ni ignorar esa verdad ni escapar de ella.”
Joanna Moorhead
“Y así, su vida no estuvo limitada como suelen estarlo las vidas de las personas. Pero vivir de forma intrépida tenía su precio, […] y, si hay una moraleja en su historia, es esa. Los seres humanos podemos vivir con más imaginación y más libertad de las que suponemos, pero nada es gratis: ni ignorar esa verdad ni escapar de ella.”
Joanna Moorhead
March 25, 2024
Enjoyable but fairly bland bio of Carrington, whose personality and uniqueness was brilliantly portrayed by Jodorowsky elsewhere (he is not mentioned here at all). I found this over-genteel and anglo-centric - French and Mexican voices are mostly absent, and consequently her life-story feels a bit watered down. A fascinating subject but disappointing.
March 18, 2026
5/5* as far as biographies go. This is a truly great one even if you are not familiar with Leonora’s work her life is so fantastic and it’s so fun to look up the paintings as you read along to see how her life is reflected in her art.!
January 11, 2023
Que libro más entretenido! Y sobre todo la vida fascinante de una de las grandes artistas del surrealismo y del arte del siglo XX. Rápido de leer, ameno y, lo más importante, completamente interesante.
September 4, 2023
Das Gute zuerst: Diese Biographie hat das Bild zurecht gerückt, das ich von Leonora Carrington im Kopf hatte. Ich kannte sie als Geliebte von Max Ernst, mit dem sie einige Jahre kurz vor und während der deutschen Invasion in Frankreich zusammenlebte. Vor allem Fotos ihres gemeinsamen Hauses an der Ardeche mit Skulpturen, Wandmalereien fand ich hinreißend.
Max Ernst wurde als feindlicher Ausländer interniert, Leonora Carrington flüchtete aus Frankreich und hatte in Spanien einen psychischen Zusammenbruch. Sie wurde in die Psychiatrie eingewiesen, danach gelang ihr die Flucht (auch aus der Psychiatrie) und die Emigration nach Mexiko. Sie entschied sich gegen Max Ernst und heiratete einen anderen.
Sie war 1917 geboren und starb erst 2011 in Mexico City.
Ein langes Leben also, sie malte und blieb Künstlerin, wurde berühmt. Zeit für zwei Ehen (eine kurz, die zweite bis zum Tod des Ehemannes), zwei Kinder, 25 Jahre in Mexiko mit der Familie, 25 Jahre in den USA allein, unterbrochen von Besuchen in Mexiko.
Das weniger Gute: Bei einer Biographie möchte ich gerne Quellenangaben, auch wenn sie von Verwandten verfasst ist. Die Bildinterpretationen konnte ich nicht nachvollziehen.
Ihr Leben in Mexiko bleibt blass, über ihre Zeit in den USA erfährt man kaum etwas.
May 14, 2024
Less about Max Ernst, more about Carrington please
September 4, 2023
Tive o privilégio de ir em uma exposição da Leonora Carrington e me apaixonar por sua obra. Ao ganhar o livro sobre a sua vida, escrito por uma de suas distantes primas, acabei me tornando mais fã ainda dessa artista que além de muito a frente do seu tempo, teve um vida impressionante. Sem dúvida um dos livros de biografia que mais mexeu comigo.
January 20, 2020
Entre el ensayo y la biografía, el libro más completo sobre Leonora y todos aquellos que formaron parte de su vida.
April 19, 2026
Easy-to-read, fascinating biography of one of (if not THE) eminent female Surrealist artist. Engaging and personal throughout. What a life Leonora lived!
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April 3, 2021Leonora Carrington murió a los 94 años el 25 de mayo de 2011. Vivía a sólo unas calles de aquí, así que una experiencia surrealista podía ser: encontrársela en la recaudería mientras elegía sus frutas y sus verduras, o verla salir del cajero automático. Creo que es poco común –y algo decepcionante– encontrarse a un surrealista en estas situaciones. Pero ella era una especie de bruja irreal que le daba magia a cualquier lugar en donde se parara. Leonora fue una isla que se separó de su familia y comenzó a viajar hasta arribar a nuestro país. Su trayecto no fue plácido, pues para llegar aquí necesitó tomar antes muchas decisiones. Romper con su padre, de quien pudo heredar una fortuna, o elegir México en lugar de New York, para continuar una carrera como pintora, lejos del mundo de los sobrevivientes de la Europa anterior a la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Un día, luego de que habían pasado muchos años, una sobrina que venía de la ya olvidada Inglaterra le tocó a la puerta. Leonora abrió y la dejó entrar a su mundo de hechicería pictórica. La dejó entrar a su vida, aunque con bastantes reticencias al principio. Y el resultado de todas esas conversaciones esta biografía realizada desde “del lado de allá”, culminación de un proceso que consistió en poder reconciliarse con la infancia. Uno de los intereses de la autora, me parece, es que busca rasgos de la familia inglesa en la obra de Leonora. Es algo que da nuevos elementos a nuestras miradas para contemplar sus cuadros: aquella niña rebelde que huyó de la represión familiar y se metió a las obras de arte para ser libre. Gran parte de este libro (es natural) se dedica a indagar en la relación de Leonora con los surrealistas, fundamentalmente con Max Ernst. Pero luego, literalmente, dos décadas de vida son despachadas en un único párrafo. Si buscamos algo de México en estas páginas… sí, se encuentra, aunque desdibujado, con líneas poco claras. Leonora fue parte de Poesía en movimiento, trabajó en colaboración con Octavio Paz, Elena Poniatowska la visitaba con frecuencia, la comunidad académica de Filosofía y Letras de la UNAM la sentía cercana, pero no muhcho de eso se refleja en estas páginas. Sin embargo, no se trata de un libro desafortunado. Pienso que, por el contrario, es la pretensión de la autora de poner una carnada a ver si pica el caprichoso pez surrealista. Y picó, porque, finalmente, creo que existía en esta artista la satisfacción de que Inglaterra le reconociera sus logros. Hay otro aspecto: por la lectura de este libro pareciera que se puede aprisionar la personalidad de la pintora, pero sería erróneo suponerlo. El espíritu de Leonora Carrington es una casa llena de puertitas, de pronto se abre una allá a lo lejos y pasa corriendo un fantasma que es inaprensible, porque juega el eterno juego de no dejarse atrapar. Por cierto, a mí me causaba una gran impresión. Un día, en la esquina de Chihuahua con Tonalá, colonia Roma, me la encontré, estaba ella con la mano en la cintura mirando las casas, y la saludé. Platicamos unos minutos, y aproveché para preguntarle por Agustín Lara. Me dijo: “Sí, lo conocí, pero no allá en París, donde se llevaba mucho con Renato. Fue hasta acá, en México, en que me hice su amiga. Es curioso, pero Renato nunca me lo presentó en Europa”. No recuerdo más sobre ese fortuito encuentro entre una surrealista y un inoportuno en una mesa de disección.
Joanna Moorhead. Leonora Carrington. Una vida surrealista. Madrid, Turner Noema, 2017.
Joanna Moorhead. Leonora Carrington. Una vida surrealista. Madrid, Turner Noema, 2017.
September 26, 2024
5+ for the subject matter. This biography started well but slipped into slight memoir as it progressed. The author’s startling revelation of her relationship to Carrington is initially a delicious slice of good luck for the reader but ultimately inhibits this from being a comprehensive or incisive biography. I can understand Moorhead wishing to protect her (distant) cousin’s privacy but great swathes of Carrington’s life are glossed over or entirely elided - 25 years of a peripatetic existence in the US whet my curiosity; as did a cover blurb reference to her involvement in the nascent rise of the Mexican feminist movement in the 70s; her interest in tarot and the occult (she designed a tarot deck) - but these are little in evidence.
Other areas - such as the demise of Carrington’s relationship with Ernst and various medical details and operations - are made obtuse.
Much is made of Carrington being wild and independent, a kind of feminist idol, but it transpires that everything she did - at least in her early years - was made possible by ongoing handouts from her parents and at the willing behest of men. Despite being told she was ‘cut off’ it becomes clear she still has an allowance and other funds. The money she was given enabled Carrington and Ernst to purchase a house in St Martin. Equally, and horrific though it is, her parents pay for her sanatorium stay in Santander. All of which could easily be clarified but instead compounds contradictions that aren’t explored.
Like her sometime peer Lee Miller (part of the Surrealists who are introduced here but summarily dispatched) Carrington’s life is extraordinary and her work (also given short shrift) and life are ripe for further examination. I loved this as a taster but await the work that will give Carrington the dues she deserves, whether by Moorhead or another.
Other areas - such as the demise of Carrington’s relationship with Ernst and various medical details and operations - are made obtuse.
Much is made of Carrington being wild and independent, a kind of feminist idol, but it transpires that everything she did - at least in her early years - was made possible by ongoing handouts from her parents and at the willing behest of men. Despite being told she was ‘cut off’ it becomes clear she still has an allowance and other funds. The money she was given enabled Carrington and Ernst to purchase a house in St Martin. Equally, and horrific though it is, her parents pay for her sanatorium stay in Santander. All of which could easily be clarified but instead compounds contradictions that aren’t explored.
Like her sometime peer Lee Miller (part of the Surrealists who are introduced here but summarily dispatched) Carrington’s life is extraordinary and her work (also given short shrift) and life are ripe for further examination. I loved this as a taster but await the work that will give Carrington the dues she deserves, whether by Moorhead or another.
July 14, 2021
The one merit of this book is the personal connection between Miss Carrington and the author, which certainly gave the author intimate information and insights.
As a biography, this is shoddy in research, indifferently written and stylistically and grammatically an embarassment. Miss Moorhead constantly confuses 'who' with 'whom' and formulations such as 'bluey-green' as opposed to 'bluish-green' make one wonder whether she imagines her readers to be on the intellectual and linguistic level of Teletubbies.
In the chapter 'Down Below', which describes a seminal time in Miss Carrington's life, her psychotic episode and the attempts to treat it in clinics in Madrid and Santander, the author boldly makes claims about the side effects of Luminal, which is administering to Miss Carrington, that are unsupported by the literature on the medication.
In the same chapter, the author attempts an analysis of a painting of the same name by Miss Carrington. What The author doesn't mention at all is another figure in the painting which, though almost on the right edge if the canvas, is the key to the figures in its center.
Similarly, in the chapter 'Cat Woman', the author attempts an analysis of Max Ernst's painting 'The Antipope'. Suffice it to say that her interpretation is far removed from all other interpretations of the painting and most likely given to reinforce the views held by her.
Maybe the key to the author and the entire book is in the introduction. There, Miss Moorhead needs a nudge from a chance acquaintance at a garden party to realize that cousin Prim (Miss Carrington) was actually quite a figure in the art world.
As a biography, this is shoddy in research, indifferently written and stylistically and grammatically an embarassment. Miss Moorhead constantly confuses 'who' with 'whom' and formulations such as 'bluey-green' as opposed to 'bluish-green' make one wonder whether she imagines her readers to be on the intellectual and linguistic level of Teletubbies.
In the chapter 'Down Below', which describes a seminal time in Miss Carrington's life, her psychotic episode and the attempts to treat it in clinics in Madrid and Santander, the author boldly makes claims about the side effects of Luminal, which is administering to Miss Carrington, that are unsupported by the literature on the medication.
In the same chapter, the author attempts an analysis of a painting of the same name by Miss Carrington. What The author doesn't mention at all is another figure in the painting which, though almost on the right edge if the canvas, is the key to the figures in its center.
Similarly, in the chapter 'Cat Woman', the author attempts an analysis of Max Ernst's painting 'The Antipope'. Suffice it to say that her interpretation is far removed from all other interpretations of the painting and most likely given to reinforce the views held by her.
Maybe the key to the author and the entire book is in the introduction. There, Miss Moorhead needs a nudge from a chance acquaintance at a garden party to realize that cousin Prim (Miss Carrington) was actually quite a figure in the art world.
August 29, 2025
A Leonora le tocó nacer cuando estaba terminando la primera guerra mundial. Le tocó la segunda guerra mundial, la guerra civil de España, la violaron y luego la llevaron a un hospital psiquiátrico, por poco se salvó del segundo manicomio. Ya en México le tocó estar muy de cerca en la matanza de Tlatelolco de 1968. Y por si fuera poco el terremoto de 1985.
Nació en una familia millonaria y renegó de su fortuna para cumplir su sueño de ser artista, y se convirtió en una de las artistas más grandes de todos los tiempos. Escritora, escultora, pintora.
La autora de esta biografía, de profesión periodista, se enteró que era familiar de una de las más grandes artistas del siglo XX, por lo que comenzó a entrevistar a sus familiares, y luego se aventuró a viajar al continente que queda del otro lado del charco, para conocerla en persona y durante los últimos años de su vida visitó con frecuencia la ciudad de México para seguirla conociendo. Además de leer la correspondencia con uno de sus grandes amigos y su mecenas, Edward James. Y revisar diferentes archivos.
La autora no solo se centra en contar la vida de Leonora, hace un interesante análisis de su obra tanto escrita como plástica y pictórica. Complementa con datos de otras investigaciones o de otros autores. Es una de las biografías más completas que he leído. Sí bien me gustó la cercanía que tuvo por tantos años Elena Poniatowka en la otra biografía que leí previo a esta. Ambas son muy buenas, pero me parece mejor documentada y más completa la de Joanna Moorhead.
Nació en una familia millonaria y renegó de su fortuna para cumplir su sueño de ser artista, y se convirtió en una de las artistas más grandes de todos los tiempos. Escritora, escultora, pintora.
La autora de esta biografía, de profesión periodista, se enteró que era familiar de una de las más grandes artistas del siglo XX, por lo que comenzó a entrevistar a sus familiares, y luego se aventuró a viajar al continente que queda del otro lado del charco, para conocerla en persona y durante los últimos años de su vida visitó con frecuencia la ciudad de México para seguirla conociendo. Además de leer la correspondencia con uno de sus grandes amigos y su mecenas, Edward James. Y revisar diferentes archivos.
La autora no solo se centra en contar la vida de Leonora, hace un interesante análisis de su obra tanto escrita como plástica y pictórica. Complementa con datos de otras investigaciones o de otros autores. Es una de las biografías más completas que he leído. Sí bien me gustó la cercanía que tuvo por tantos años Elena Poniatowka en la otra biografía que leí previo a esta. Ambas son muy buenas, pero me parece mejor documentada y más completa la de Joanna Moorhead.
April 7, 2023
--- "In the end, Peggy did buy – but it was one of Leonora’s works, not one of Max’s." (Moorhead: 62)
--- "in The Magdalen (1986), a crone (Leonora loved that word) is placing a pill into the outstretched palm of a younger woman. Unusually, Leonora broke her own rules, and explained this to me: the tablet she is handing over, she said, is a contraceptive pill. In a matriarchal world, a woman’s right to control her fertility would be sacramental." (Moorhead: 173)
In preparation for the exhibition about Leonora Carrington in Madrid, I decided to read this book, which describes Carrington's personal life. From time to time references to her works are included, specially to her writings. References to her paintings are not as frequent as I would have liked.
I felt the book spends too much time describing the lives (and sometimes works) of people other than Leonora. Towards the end of the book, when her friends and acquaintances have all died, the book finally focuses exclusively on her.
In my opinion, illustrations should have been placed next to the text rather than in an appendix. The book shows how important Leonora was in terms of what she knew and did in her works. I wonder if the description the book gives of the first-ever exhibition of Surrealism in Paris is based on Carrington's words or on a review written back then. Anyway, if it were not for that diversion into other people's works and lives, my rating would have been definitely higher.
--- "in The Magdalen (1986), a crone (Leonora loved that word) is placing a pill into the outstretched palm of a younger woman. Unusually, Leonora broke her own rules, and explained this to me: the tablet she is handing over, she said, is a contraceptive pill. In a matriarchal world, a woman’s right to control her fertility would be sacramental." (Moorhead: 173)
In preparation for the exhibition about Leonora Carrington in Madrid, I decided to read this book, which describes Carrington's personal life. From time to time references to her works are included, specially to her writings. References to her paintings are not as frequent as I would have liked.
I felt the book spends too much time describing the lives (and sometimes works) of people other than Leonora. Towards the end of the book, when her friends and acquaintances have all died, the book finally focuses exclusively on her.
In my opinion, illustrations should have been placed next to the text rather than in an appendix. The book shows how important Leonora was in terms of what she knew and did in her works. I wonder if the description the book gives of the first-ever exhibition of Surrealism in Paris is based on Carrington's words or on a review written back then. Anyway, if it were not for that diversion into other people's works and lives, my rating would have been definitely higher.
October 14, 2024
Having been born into great wealth in Lancashire (the daughter of a fantastically rich mill owner), Leonora Carrington was an artist who lived most of her life in Mexico. As a young woman she abandoned her privileged upbringing to become an artist in London, where her abilities were quickly recognised. Once there she soon met and fell in love with the German surrealist Max Ernst; with him she moved to France and experienced the flourishing of surrealism in Paris, counting Paul Élouard, Man Ray, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and others among her circle of friends. As the Second World War neared, she left Paris with Ernst for southern France, establishing herself in a small village in the Ardèche. Escaping France via Spain and Portugal, she finally ended up in Mexico and worked as an artist there for many decades, finally gaining a level of recognition that would have been impossible in the earlier years of surrealism, when women were usually relegated to the role of muse.
Moorhead writes from the perspective of a younger cousin, and the book gains an intimacy from this while losing perhaps a critical edge which might have been beneficial.
The story of Carrington's life is highly engaging, and it's her life that is in focus here. I missed a deeper engagement with her art, its production and what it has come to mean. Perhaps that's for another book.
Moorhead writes from the perspective of a younger cousin, and the book gains an intimacy from this while losing perhaps a critical edge which might have been beneficial.
The story of Carrington's life is highly engaging, and it's her life that is in focus here. I missed a deeper engagement with her art, its production and what it has come to mean. Perhaps that's for another book.
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