'When you look at your parents or grandparents it's hard to imagine them as young lovers full of adventure'

Conjuring up an extraordinary tale and extra depths to the famous photographer, Lee Miller, Ami Bouhassane shares her grandmothers love letters, held in the Lee Miller's Archives.

Episode 10. The Picasso Portrait

In this episode Roland is anxious because he is not getting any letters from Lee, whereas Lee in Egypt has just recieved delivery of the portrait Picasso painted of her that Roland had bought and sent to her, so throws a party to celebrate and share it.

'My cocktail party was a tremendous success and so much conversation and criticism was started by it, that I was cursing Picasso and all the pictures ever painted. Two or three people even thought I showed it as a deliberate insult to them and everyone and were convinced that it was all tongue in the cheek. You must remember that there are really people here who have never seen or heard of modern pictures, and that they seem to be quite normal people otherwise - - - - except for occasions like this you’d never notice that they had never thought in their lives.' wrote Lee Miller 9th March 1938

Guest Speakers: Antony Penrose (son of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose and Co-Director of Lee Miller Archives), Hilary Roberts (Independent Curator, formerly senior curator of photography at Imperial War Museums, London), Hussein Omar (lecturer on Modern global history, University college Dublin) and Sam Bardaouil (Founder & curator of ArtReorientated).

Lee Miller's letters read and presented by Ami Bouhassane

Roland Penrose's letters read by Adam Grayson

Music composed by David Cullen

Series Producer: Tolly Robinson

All content © Lee Miller Archives, England 2023. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.