Jardins

First edition, one of 60 copies on large paper signed on the justification by Leonor Fini and Jean Paul Guibbert, the only copies to include four etchings by the Surrealist artist. This copy numbered on grand vélin de Rives.

Minute tear at head of joint.

Enriched with a precious presentation inscription from Leonor Fini to the Surrealist Lise Deharme: "Pour Lise à qui je plais(t) et qui me plais(t) \ Leonor" [To Lise who delights in me and in whom I delight], accompanied by an original drawing of a mischievous cat beside the artist's signature.

By repeating the verb "to delight" twice, conjugating it each time in the first and third person singular, Leonor Fini merges with Lise Deharme in the same way the letter S coils itself around the letter T. This blending achieved through words bears witness to the close friendship that united the artist and the writer. These few lines by Leonor Fini—a surrealist and calligraphic response to the very modern question of identity—seem to anticipate inclusive writing. Half a century before the syntactic fusion of genders, Fini creates a grammatical superimposition in which I, you, and she blend together joyfully.

Lise Deharme would take up this mirrored wording more explicitly eight years later:

"Marvellous creature, my Leonor, all claws extended and all tenderness within. I delight in her company, I delight in being within her."

Le téléphone est mort, 1973 (our own translation)

In her diary from 1939-1949, Lise Deharme already nicknamed Leonor her "big cat". Before Dora Maar's lens in 1936, Leonor also posed with a black cat. This feline alter ego was adopted early in her career and was shared with several other Surrealist artists, including Remedios Varo, Valentine Hugo, Leonora Carrington, and even Lise Deharme herself.

A fine copy on large paper whose inscription bears witness to the deep complicity—both friendly and intellectual—that bound Leonor Fini to her fellow Surrealist Lise Deharme.