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HORSE

measurements
13 1/8 by 18 1/8 in.

alternate measurements
(33.4 by 46 cm)

oil on canvas

Painted circa 1939.

This lot is sold with a photo-certificate of authenticity signed by Leonora Carrington.

PROVENANCE

Teresa Feibelman, Mexico
Acquired from the above by the present owner

EXHIBITED

Monterrey, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Carrington Una Retrospectiva, September-December, 1994, no. 6, p. 142, illustrated in color, p. 69
Tokyo, Tokyo Station Gallery; Daimaru Museum; Hida Takayama Museum of Art; Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Leonora Carrington, October 14, 1997-May 5, 1998, no. 4, p. 44, illustrated in color

NOTE

A haunting example of Carrington's emerging Surrealist style, Horse was executed during her relationship with Max Ernst c.1939. Carrington passionately identified with horses and in her youth they appear as stand-ins for the artist in both her literary and visual output. Gazing longingly out of the window towards freedom, this nervous creature prances in place as if preparing to leap into the breaking dawn outside. The horse's lush black mane cascades down its back in an animated fashion, greatly resembling the artist's own flowing locks of the time. In 1938, Carrington and Ernst moved to a farm house in St Martin-d'Ardèche where they would spend two magic years. She had only recently left England for love and a new creative life in Paris with the Surrealists and perhaps this horse's barely contained excitement reflects her own as she embarked on a new path.

Two other paintings by Carrington in particular are related to Horse, Self-Portrait (Inn of the Dawn Horse) 1938 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) and the lesser known, Caballo con crines largas c. 1939. All three works feature a horse and an ornately upholstered boudoir chair in a domestic interior. This ultra-feminine chair, padded with pink satin and skirted with petticoat-like folds is yet another Carrington stand-in for the self, this time for the stultifying class and gender expectations which she was abandoning. In a delightful Surrealist play, the chair back, arms and feet are sprouting leaves as if alive and in rebellion against their inanimate status as furniture. Also remarkable here is the odd curtain arrangement around the window which, like a spectacular opera set, announces that a drama is taking place. Emerging from the top of the side panels of white fabric are ghostly heads sprouting colorful flowers reminiscent of the tiaras and bouquets of debutantes at a ball. Carrington herself had recently been a debutante in 1934 when she was presented to the court of King George V in London. Full of energy and intimations of transformation, this work exudes a youthful sense of wonder and hope for the future.

Susan Aberth, 2005