Roland PENROSE – Pablo PICASSO and the Surrealists in London in 1936.

Roland PENROSE (1900.1984)

Autographed letter signed to André Breton.

One page in quarto on letterhead bearing his London address.

[London] May 19, 1936.

"I saw Skira last night and the lady who lent us the Picasso, 'Woman with Golden Breasts'"

Surrealism crosses borders: important letter from Roland Penrose to André Breton relating to two founding events of the surrealist movement which took place simultaneously in London and Paris in the spring of 1936.

The British surrealist artist first informed his French colleague of the sending of some photographs intended for "The Surrealist Exhibition of Objects", organized from May 22 to 29, 1936, by Breton, at the Charles Ratton gallery in Paris.

Meanwhile, across the Channel, Penrose was preparing " The International Surrealist Exhibition" — the first international surrealist exhibition across the Channel — which was held at the New Burlington Gallery, London, from June 11 to July 4, 1936. Penrose was delighted with the loan of a masterpiece by Pablo Picasso while worrying about the silence of Salvador Dalí.

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"Dear friend, Here are a few more photos – two Pre-Raphaelites and one for the exhibition – too late I'm afraid, but I'm sending them anyway. Otherwise, everything is fine. I saw Skira last night and the lady [Ingeborg Eichmann] who is lending us the Picasso, 'Woman with Golden Breasts', today.

"Only Dali remains obscure [sic]; I haven't received a reply from him yet , and the films have completely broken down. I will write to you again in a few days. I wish you great success with the exhibition of objects, which [sic] I am sorry I cannot attend. I send you both my best regards. Affectionately, Roland Penrose."

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“ The International Surrealist Exhibition” , and Herbert Read, with the active participation of E.L.T. Mesens and André Breton. This inaugural exhibition in Britain was a resounding success. Attracting over 20,000 visitors, André Breton concluded after the event that the Surrealist group in England was established. Encouraged by this London success, Penrose and Breton, with the help of Max Ernst and E.L.T. Mesens, organized the first Surrealist exhibition in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1938.

The Picasso masterpiece mentioned by Penrose, Woman with Golden Breasts, painted in 1913, was exhibited in London as catalogue number 298. The work—on loan from the Czech art historian and collector Ingeborg Eichmann (1907–1980)—is now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The " Surrealist Exhibition of Objects," , at the Charles Ratton Gallery, saw works by Duchamp, Picasso, Ernst, Bellmer, Tanguy, Dalí, Giacometti, and others displayed alongside around one hundred objects of primitive art. A true "manifesto-exhibition" of the Surrealist approach, the event established itself as a key stage in the movement.