dorothea tanning (the american surrealist)

portrait of Muriel Levy, 1943, 

Tanning was a self-taught artist. The surreal imagery of her paintings from the 1940s and her close friendships with artists and writers of the Surrealist Movement have led many to regard Tanning as a Surrealist painter, yet she developed her own individual style over the course of an artistic career that spanned six decades.

Profanation Landscape, 1947

Tanning's early works consist of precise figurative renderings of dream-like situations. Tanning read many Gothic and Romantic novels from her local library in her hometown of Galesburg. These fantastical stories, filled with imagery of the imaginary, heavily influenced her style and subject matter for years to come. Like other Surrealist painters, she was meticulous in her attention to details and in building up surfaces with carefully muted brushstrokes. 

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, 1943

Through the late 1940s, Tanning continued to paint depictions of unreal scenes, some of which combined erotic subjects with enigmatic symbols and desolate space. In the 1950s, her painting became less explicit and more suggestive. 

Rêve de Luxe, 1954

The Guest Room, 1950

In France, she moved away from Surrealism and develop her own style. During the mid-1950s, her work radically changed and her images became increasingly fragmented and prismatic, exemplified in works such as Insomnias (1957, Moderna Museet, Stockholm). 

Family portrait, 1954

here's an short about Tanning's work,