In Portrait of Space, Near Siwa (Egypt, 1937), Lee Miller turns a simple scene into something quietly disorienting. A torn mosquito net hangs in the foreground, its fragile surface separating, and at the same time connecting, the interior to the vast desert beyond. This photograph reflects her instinct for finding the unexpected within the ordinary, a way of seeing shaped by her proximity to Surrealism, yet never confined by it.
This photograph was taken whilst Miller was living in Cairo and married to her first husband Aziz Eloui Bey. Miller had moved from a successful career as a photographer in New York to start a different phase of life. Although this period allowed her to photograph with a new sense of freedom, her life in Cairo was shaped by a social world she found unfulfilling. A sense of distance, and perhaps longing, seems to permeate Portrait of Space.
Copyright stamp on reverse and dated 1986. On the backing of the frame there’s a note by Carole Callow, estate printer and curator of the Lee Miller Archives, alongside Antony Penrose and Suzanne Penrose: “René Magritte saw this photograph in London in 1938, and is thought to have inspired his painting ‘Le Baiser’.” This work belongs to an edition also represented in the collection of the National Gallery.
More information on request.
Measurements:
Image 33 x 27.5 cm, Frame 51.5 x 42.7 cm (Framed and glazed).
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