Leonor Fini (August 30, 1907 – January 18, 1996) was an Argentinian surrealist painter, designer, illustrator, and author, known for her depictions of powerful women.
Throughout a long career, the canvases of Leonor Fini's journey between the pains of despair and the serenity of enlightenment but remain polished with eroticism at every extreme. Driven by passion, liberty, and sexual experimentation, she was arguably the most rebellious, theatrical, and autonomous of the female Surrealists.
Although she exhibited with the Surrealists, Fini's staunch individuality was often at odds with the collective ideas of the group. Unlike many women who became central to the movement, she was not impressed by the charisma and intellectualism of male members. Already well read and versed in psychoanalytic theory, Fini refused to be submissive or subordinate to men. She lived flamboyantly and communally and always with two men, one as her lover and one as her friend.&am
In collaboration with her friend, the art publisher Arianne Lancell – aka Etincelle, as Dali used to call her - Leonor Fini created in 1983 the monumental book “CARMILLA” based on the 1872 gothic novel by the Irish writer Sheridan Le Fanu.
The book includes twenty-three illustrations by Leonor Fini: eight full-page color silkscreen and 15 black & white original lithographs; all numbered and signed by the artist.
Carmilla is considered one of the early works of vampire fiction. It tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla. It predates Bram Stoker's Dracula by 26 years. The story has been adapted many times in film and other media.