Fini is quoted as having said, “A woman should always live with two men; one mostly a lover and one mostly a friend.” That she proceeded to do so is indicative of her propensity to live as she believed. ‘Mostly a Lover’ was the Italian Marquis, Stanislao Lepri, whom she met in 1941. He was, at that time, a member of the Italian Diplomatic Corps from which he resigned when he moved in with Leonor. They formed an alliance that did not end until his death in Paris in 1980. While I became close to ‘Mostly a Friend,’ Constantin (Kot) Jelenski, I, sadly, never had the pleasure of meeting Lepri.

Her painting Stanislao and Leonor, oil on canvas, 18.5” x 15”, is very similar to one that was included in the Surrealism- Two Private Eyes exhibition at the New York Guggenheim Museum in 1999.

Leonor was consumed during this period with the theme of metamorphosis (a thread that is found in much of her continuing work) and the correlation between earth, vegetation and flesh. Her intellect was prodigious and her exploration of philosophy and its relationship to her own life was frequently the sub-text of her paintings. It was during this period that she began to formulate her own landscapes, which would continue to house the characters of her imagination.

Among other exhibitions, Stanislao and Leonor was featured in the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas, show “High Drama; Eugene Berman and the Legacy of the Melancholic Sublime” in May of 2006.