Fini, Leonor 1908 Buenos Aires - 1996 Paris Somnambule. 1995. Oil on canvas. 100 x 50cm. Signed bottom right: Leonor Fini. Denoted on stretcher: L. Fini SOMNAMBULE(!) 1 1995. Craftman's frame. Expertise: An expertise by Richard Overstreet from 4. October 2000 is at hand. Provenance: Galerie Minski, Paris (label) Literature: Leonor Fini, Galerie Dionne, ill. p. 16, 19 and 20. Exhibition: Galerie Minski, Paris, 1998 The Somnambule by Leonor Fini - which was on display in the artist's apartment as part of a series - is in many respects a very typical work of a creative oeuvre that was not only marked by dreams and phantasies but also by highly theatric features. As one of her last paintings it combines these elements in a pictorial language of her own. Leonor Fini was born to an Italien mother in Argentine, but was raised in Triest. Early on she had contact to surrealist artists like Giorgio de Chirico, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst and Man Ray and maintained these friendships all her life although she never adopted a dogmatic understanding of Surrealism. She was rather attracted by the theatre; she designed stage settings as well as a rich imaginary world where the female characters who radiate much of her own self have their source. The Somnambule, the dream walker, who drapes her fragile moon-lit shape in opulent, flower-adorned robes, is one of the most beautiful figures the artist ever created. After her death the Galerie Minski in Paris paid a tribute to the artist with a retrospective presenting the most important works from all periods of her life.