Roland Penrose
Videos
Page
Sir Roland Algernon Penrose was an English artist, historian and poet. He was a major promoter and collector of modern art and an associate of the surrealists in the United Kingdom. During the Second World War he put his artistic skills to practical use as a teacher of camouflage.
Penrose, circa 1940
Surrealist work Le Grand Jour, 1938, described by Penrose as a collage painting, made using nothing but paint, depicting among other things an alembic
Penrose used this photograph of his partner Lee Miller to startle his audiences when lecturing on camouflage.
Farleys House, now a museum and archive, with blue plaque
Lee Miller
Videos
Page
Elizabeth "Lee" Miller, Lady Penrose, was an American photographer and photojournalist. Miller was a fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris, becoming a fashion and fine art photographer there. During World War II, she was a war correspondent for Vogue, covering events such as the London Blitz, the liberation of Paris, and the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. Her reputation as an artist in her own right is due mostly to the fact her son discovered and promoted her work as a fashion and war photographer.
Miller in 1943
Farley Farm House
Miller in 1943 with other female war correspondents who covered the U.S. Army in the European Theater during World War II; from left to right: Mary Welsh, Dixie Tighe, Kathleen Harriman, Helen Kirkpatrick, Lee Miller, and Tania Long
Blue Plaque, 21 Downshire Hill, Hampstead