A VAST HORIZON

Artists in love and war.

British biographer Thomasson creates a vibrant portrait of an international group of artists, as well as their lovers and friends, who lived and worked in France just before and during World War II, focusing on their art, writings, and especially hundreds of photographs that they took of one another—some staged, others spontaneous. “The photographs,” which Thomasson describes in precise, often poetic, detail, “offer a sense of the group’s vitality, their elegance, their pleasure in friendship and connection, and their ever-evolving self-discovery.” Many of the group are well-known, among them Picasso, Man Ray, Lee Miller, and Dora Maar; others, less so: the poet Paul Éluard and his wife, Nusch, a model; artist Eileen Agar and her lover, writer Joseph Bard; Man Ray’s lover, Ady Fidelin, a dancer and model; and artist Roland Penrose. As she creates capsule biographies of each individual, Thomasson explores themes of friendship and creativity, love, and desire. Many were rebelling “against class, families, nationalities, fascism, and the social dictates of gender,” although racism and sexism often infiltrated their experiences. Many were drawn to surrealism: its vitality and rebellious spirit, in addition to its fascination with the unconscious, dreams, and the imagination. Thomasson traces their lives from 1937, when they vacationed together at the Hôtel Vaste Horizon, in the south of France, to Paris in 1947, in a war-torn decade during which they tried to foster a sense of community in a world that seemed descending into chaos. Structuring her book as a “collage,” she juxtaposes biographical fragments, letters, and descriptions to create the portrait of an age in which artists ardently believed that “acts of creativity were a powerful weapon in the fight for freedom.” While she inventively renders photographs into evocative prose, it’s regrettable that only four photos are reproduced.

A vivid cultural history.