Lee Miller was born on the 23 of April 1907 in Poughkeepsie, New York. She was something of a tomboy, always ready for the next big adventure and to try the biggest stunt.
When she was 19 while studying art in New York, she almost was almost killed when she stepped out into a busy road, only to be pulled back onto the sidewalk, and to safety by Conde Nast. Nast tool on looks at Lee Miller and hired her to model in his magazine. Perhaps you've heard of it... Vouge.
For the next few years, she became one of the most popular models. However, she quickly became bored of it and pursued photography instead.
So she traveled to Paris where she met Man Ray and persuaded the surrealist to teach her photography. Not only did she become his student, she was his lover and muse. She is featured in much of his work. I his painting, aptly titled "Lips" it's her lips floating above the mountain range. Interestingly enough Roland Penrose organized a surrealist exhibit that included Man Ray's lips. Little did he know that the painting featured his future wife's lips.
Miller befriended of Parisian artists like Max Ernst and Picasso. She would vacation with some of the most prominent figures in the art world at the time. Picasso would paint Lee six times and the two remained friends throughout the rest their lives.
It was Lee Miller, not Man Ray, who discovered the photography technique known at "solarisation" bu turning on a light in their darkroom before the negatives had fully developed. It creates a dark line around the subject of the photograph and created groundbreaking images at the time. Ray is often credited with this discovery and he used it often in his own work, but it was actually Lee Miller who made the first picture of its kind on accident.
Lee Miller and Man Ray's exciting, passionate and tumultuous relationship ended and Man did not take it well. In fact, one of his most famous pieces, Indestructible Object, includes her eye ticking on a metronome. This is a replica as the original was destroyed in Paris in 1952.
In 1937 she met Roland Penrose and moved in with him. This is the man she would end up marrying and spending the rest of her life with.
In 1942 became a war correspondent accredited by the United States of America. She was attached to the 83rd Infantry Division od the US Army. She was on the front line of the Allied advance from Normandy, Paris, and Germany.
On April 29,1945, Miller walked through the gates of Dachau as it was liberated by the American forces. She took some of the most shocking pictures of the Nazi's failed attempt to exterminate the Jews and others the Third Reich had declared as "enemies".
When Lee went to Munich she and the GI's found Hitler's apartment. Lee Miller whipped her boots, covered in Dachau mud, on Hitler's bathmat then took a bath in his bathtub. She was pictured naked and bathing in Hitler's bathtub. Little did she know that only a few hours later Hitler and Eva Braun killed themselves in Hitler's bunker.
Her son, Antony Penrose, who wrote her biography said: "I think she was sticking two fingers up at Hitler."
When she arrived in Paris the first thing she did was go to Picasso's studio. There they are pictured smiling holding each other tight, probably beyond relieved that they were both alive. Picasso is quoted saying in astonishment "the first Allied soldier I should see is a woman- and she is you."
After the war she continues to contribute to Vouge for two years, writing and photographing fashion and celebrities. Then, in 1947 she married Roland Penrose and shortly after then she gave birth to their son Antony Penrose. She continued to write after being married and having a child, contributing to her husband's biographies on Picasso, Miro, Man Tay, and Tapies.
She remained close friends with Picasso and Antony Penrose, Lee Miller's son recalls going over to Picasso's home as a child. He even wrote a book about the time he bit Picasso, as a child of course.
Antony relationship with his mother was difficult. "It's not easy to have a relationship with an alcoholic parent." He suspected that she suffered from PTSD and he distanced himself from his mother as soon as he could Even though she was an alcoholic and extremely difficult to deal with Roland stayed with her until the end.
Years later she, to some extent, she recovered and reinvented herself as a gourmet surrealist cook, serving visitors blue spaghetti, green chicken, and pink cauliflower.
Antony in Lee's relationship was salvaged and Lee was able to hold her first grandchild, Ami, in her arms before dying of cancer.
After she died her work as an artist was nearly forgotten. That is until Antony and his late wife Suzanna found a box of her photographs. Since then Antony has worked tireless and has archived her work online so the whole wold can see it. He has written biographies about his parent's astonishing lives. He has even turned his former childhood home into a museum and does exhibitions there and around the world.
More information on the work he has done to preserve his mother's work can be found here.
There is a chance you might be seeing more of Lee Miller soon as there is a project in the process. Kate Winslet is said to be working on a movie where she stars as Lee Miller in a biopic. She has even been by the Penrose house and has studied Lee Miller and her life to prepare for the part.
The mark that Lee Miller is an undeniable one. From her lips floating above Man Ray's mountain range to her six Picasso portraits to Hitler's bathroom carpet she soaked with mud from one of his own concentration camps. She was a remarkable vibrant woman. She was one of the most colorful figures of the surrealist time.
