Following the outbreak of war, Leonor Fini left Paris and began to travel across Europe continuing her painterly investigations, whilst evading the pervasive conflict. Portrait de Lino Invernizzi is a dazzling example of Fini’s portraiture executed during the artist’s stay in Italy during these turbulent years.

It was towards the end of 1943 that Fini made her way into Rome, accompanied by her paintings, her beloved cats and her companion the artist Stanislao Lepri. In need of income, Fini turned her attention to portraiture. Fini had first begun to take an increasing interest in portraiture during the 1930s. As well as providing the artist with a steady source of income, portraiture allowed the artist to hone her skills, depicting partners, confidantes and patrons in a variety of vivacious and dramatic compositions. Painted in 1944-45, the present work has a stylistic maturity that reflects the apotheosis of Fini’s exploration of the portraiture genre. Speaking of a portrait executed during this t.mes , one of Fini’s sitters remarked the following of her technique: ‘There was no preliminary drawing. Leonor worked straight onto the canvas, painting very slowly, using very small brushes and well-diluted paint, and waited for each paint layer to dry before painting a further layer, just like the Renaissance painters.’ (quoted in, Peter Webb, Sphinx, The Life and Art of Leonor Fini, New York, 2009, p. 110, p. 109). In the present work this Renaissance comparison is further heightened by the painter’s striking use of chiaroscuro and the rich dark background against which the portrait is set. Fini often looked back to the work of the Renaissance as well as the Dutch and Flemish Old Master Painters and the rich study of fabrics is test.mes nt to this. Portrait de Lino Invernizzi is both rooted in the art of the past and yet deeply contemporary.

Rome provided a wealth of aristocrats and commissions during this t.mes were plentiful. During her t.mes spent there, Fini worked long hours painting her models in the studio of the Palazzo Altieri in the Piazza del Gesu. It was here that Fini and Lepri entertained an eclectic group of artists and writers. Klaus Mann, son of the famed writer Thomas Mann and a sitter of Fini’s, wrote of Fini in his autobiography:

The sitter in the present work is Lino Invernizzi, a well-known architect in Genoa and an avid art collects or. Fini employs her distinctive refined facture to create a deeply sensuous portrait. Lino’s pose is confident and his softened facial features, the focus falling upon his lips and blue eyes, are distinctly Fini in their assertive femininity. The artist’s adept handling of her medium is further apparent in the opulent array of drapery depicted; each section of fabric evokes texture and the fine lacework and plume of delicately articulated feathers are complemented by rich swathes of velvet and satin. Whilst the light halos around the sitter’s face drawing the viewer’s attention, the gaze is drawn down this cascade of fabric to the pink petals of a rose that enhances the eroticism of the scene. ‘I experience an erotic world where there is no divergence, no hostility, where everything mizes together…. I have always liked the scenes of play, of disguise. I am not artificial, but on the contrary too natural…. I like to feel myself in a state of metamorphosis like certain animals and certain plants. It is a need for a change of dimension more than a need for defense.’ (Fini quoted in, ibid., New York, 2009, p. 105).

Following Lino Invernizzi’s death, his widow, Maria Teresa Danè donated a significant part of his art collects ion, which included works by Lucio Fontana, Robert & Sonia Delaunay and Marino Marini, to the Villa Faravelli - M.A.C.I. in Imperia, Italy. It is particularly pertinent therefore, that the present work was chosen to remain within the family of the sitter, where it stayed for over 60 years, from its date of execution until 2008.