*Rococo Revisited — Leonor Fini, arriving at the Beistegui ball; she...

Leonor Fini, arriving at the Beistegui ball; she was the muse of artists Cartier-Bresson, André Pieyre de Mandiargues and Max Jacob.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1907, this cosmopolitan artist grew up in Trieste where she met Italo Svevo and James Joyce. After the timid beginning of a career in Italy, she came to Paris in 1931 where she was quickly noticed, thanks in part to Christian Dior. As director of the Bonjean gallery, Dior organized Leonor Fini’s first solo exhibition in November 1932. The post-war period marked her rise to celebrity, not only for her paintings, but also for her theater sets and book illustrations… and her participation in parties and costume balls which were the rage at the Comte de Beaumont’s and the Noailles’.
But the apotheosis, both for her and for Christian Dior, as well as the Aga Khan, Salvador Dali, Orson Welles and 1500 guests, was the extraordinary ball held at Venice’s Palazzo Labia on September 3rd, 1951, organized by Charles de Beistegui, which would go down in posterity as “The Ball of the Century”, an unforgettable fusion of the arts.