Lee Miller and Picasso
An exhibition celebrating the friendship Lee Miller and Picasso from 1937 until the end of their lives, it includes personal photographs and interior shots of Picasso’s studio that give a unique insight into both photographer and artist.
It is probable that Lee Miller first met Picasso whilst working with Man Ray in Paris from 1929 to 1932. Man Ray was close to Picasso and so an encounter would have been likely, but the first solid evidence we have of their meeting is from 1937.
Lee Miller visited Paris from her home in Cairo in June 1937. At a Surrealist fancy dress ball she re-made her friendship with Man Ray whom she had left five years earlier and met Roland Penrose for the first time. She travelled to Cornwall with Penrose and then to Mougins, on the Côte d’Azur for a gathering of the Surrealists.
Picasso was immediately attracted to Miller and painted her six times, a l’Arlesienne. In return Miller photographed Picasso, beginning a series she continued for more than thirty years and which grew to a collection of over a thousand images.
The exhibition was originally curated by Antony Penrose with the Lee Miller Archives and received 5 star reviews in its first showing at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2015.
This Special exhibition at Farleys contains 65 photographs exploring the friendship of Lee Miller and Picasso.
