Lee Miller in Cornwall
Everyone comes to Cornwall eventually, my partner says, and last week Kate Winslet was here at the Newquay cinema, being interviewed to promote her latest film, Lee, where she plays mainly one of The Lives of Lee Miller – that of war correspondent (her other lives were model, surrealist, fashion photographer, mother and gourmet cook).
Lee Miller herself was in Cornwall too, for three weeks in 1937, a mere holiday but long enough to warrant what Roland Penrose called ‘a surrealist invasion’, and the inspiration of an exhibition at Falmouth Art Gallery a few years ago, The Surrealists in Cornwall, alongside an interesting booklet. For Miller was also there with friends and fellow surrealist poets, writers and painters including her husband-to-be, Roland Penrose, who invited her to England soon after meeting her in Paris. They went to stay at Lambe Creek, near Truro, in a cottage owned by Penrose’s brother. Other guests who came along were Leonora Carrington, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Ady Fidelin, Eileen Agar, Joseph Bard, Paul and Nusch Éluard. Visitors included Henry Moore and his wife; Édourd Mesens, Belgian surrealist poet and dealer; and Joseph Bard, writer.
A scene in Lee, purported to have happened at Mougins, France (though I knew immediately it wasn’t filmed in Mougins, as I’ve stayed there; it was actually filmed in Dubrovnik), where Lee Miller lies across her friends Ady and Nusch (photo above, top left), and Roland Penrose takes a photo of them, was actually taken at Lambe Creek.
A jolly time was apparently had by all. Eileen Agar wrote about it: ‘It was a delightful surrealist house party that July, with Roland taking the lead, ready to turn the slightest encounter into an orgy. I remember going off to watch Lee taking a bubble-bath, but there was not quite enough room in the tub for all of us…’
Luckily, the cottage was quite secluded in the creek, with low hanging trees on the water’s edge, an ideal spot for the surrealist’s expression of freedom. There were boat trips to the Heron pub (still there) in Malpas, journeys to Falmouth (where Roland bought the figurehead, seen with Lee, in photo above), Loe Pool and Land’s End.
It’s not known how much great art was created, but life long friendships were formed, and intellectual and erotic fun was enjoyed. Europe was on the verge of changing forever.
Lee Miller had already lived an interesting life, having been a fashion model for Vogue magazine; a model, collaborator, muse and lover of Man Ray in Paris; she ran a photography studio back in New York; married an Egyptian businessman and lived in Egypt, where she took some of her most striking photos, including my favourite, Portrait of Space. A restless traveller, she soon returned to Paris, where she met Roland Penrose.
Portrait of Space, 1937
At the outbreak of war Miller embarked on a new career as photojournalist, taking war photos for Vogue. She witnessed the liberation of Paris, the horror of the concentration camps, and was one of the first to arrive at Adolf Hitler’s apartment in Munich (on the day he killed himself in his bunker). She took a bath in Hitler’s bathroom (with David E. Scherman taking the iconic image of her doing so) and slept in his bed. Her photos are an invaluable record of the war, and many display a surreal touch.
Lee Miller in Hitler’s bathtub, Hitler’s apartment, 1945, by David Scherman
Returning to England, Miller suffered from depression and PTSD (undiagnosed). She drank heavily, her husband had multiple affairs. Miller and Penrose bought Farley Farm House in Sussex, which became a Mecca for visiting artist in the 1950s and 60s. She had a son, Anthony, and took up gourmet cooking, specialising in medieval food. She died of cancer in 1977, aged 70. After her death, her son discovered some 60,000 negatives, 20,000 prints and documents boxed up in the attic of her farm, which he knew nothing about.
Long overshadowed by her male counterparts, I hope the film Lee gives Lee Miller some of the recognition she deserves. The book it was based on, The Lives of Lee Miller, by her son, is well worth a read. Farleys House and Gallery can be visited, and this year celebrates 75 years since Lee and Roland moved there.
• Falmouth Art Gallery is currently exhibitioning Falmouth and the Surrealists, featuring works by Lee Miller and women artists associated with surrealism. This year also celebrates 100 years of surrealism.