Roland Penrose (1900 - 1984)

Oil on canvas
27 x 33 cm
Signed and dated lower right. Inscribed vero "To my Diana, with my love Sir Roland Le Crapaud, 4 Sept 79"

Exhibited
British Arts Council, Roland Penrose Arts Council Retrospective, 1980 no. BC56, travelled to: Fermoy Centre, King's Lynn, 1980; Institute of Contemporary Art, London, 1980; Arnolfini, Bristol, 1980; Harris Museum & Art Gallery, Preston, 1980; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, 1981; Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona, 1981

Literature
Roland Penrose, Scrap Book 1900-1981, Thames & Hudson, London, 1981, Pl 378

Provenance
Diane Deriaz Collection, Paris


Roland Penrose was a central figure in the emergence of surrealism in Britain during the 1930s. A trained architect, he began painting full time and, and when living in France between 1922 and 1936, met leading figures of the Surrealist movement including Picasso, Paul Éluard, and Max Ernst. Penrose was instrumental in organizing the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition held at the New Burlington Galleries in London; a key moment that significantly shaped the British art scene for the next decade. A keen collector, Penrose played a critical role in the creation of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, which he co-founded in 1947.

This superb surrealist painting Cat and Fly, 1948 was owned by Diane Deriaz. Originally trained as an acrobat and notable trapeze artiste, Deriaz immersed herself in the French literary and artistic scene of the 1930s and 40s and became a muse for many poets and surrealists. She met Penrose in the late 40s and became his mistress. After Miller’s death in 1977, she was the prominent figure in his life.

Deriaz was the subject of a portrait by Francois Gilot (Diane-Sphynx, 1954) and was also photographed by Man Ray (La Jolie, c.1961).

Cat and Fly was gifted to Deriaz in 1979 by Penrose and was included in an Arts Council of Great Britain touring exhibition which travelled to the Fundacio Joan Miro Foundation, Barcelona in 1981.