Dorothea Tanning

(American, 1910–2012)

Dorothea Tanning was an American artist best known for her Surrealist paintings. Tanning often used her own dreams as inspiration, as seen in her self-portrait Birthday (1942), in which the artist stands bare-breasted with a griffin-like creature on the floor before her. “My dreams are bristling with objects that relate to nothing in the dictionary,” she once said. “Dreams one reads in books are composed of known symbols but it is their strangeness that distinguishes them.” Born on August 25, 1910 in Galesburg, IL, she went on to attend Knox College, before moving to Chicago in 1930. Once in the city, she attended night classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago while working as a waitress. In 1935, Tanning relocated to New York, where she found employment as a commercial artist and first encountered the works of the Surrealists. Five years later, as the flood of refugee artists from Europe during World War II came to the city, Tanning was introduced to Yves Tanguy, Salvador Dalí, and her future husband Max Ernst. It is notable that Ernst left his current wife, the collector Peggy Guggenheim, for Tanning in 1946. The married couple would go on to live in Sedona, AZ, before relocating to France in 1949. The artist returned to New York in 1980 after the death of her husband in Paris. She died at the age of 101 on January 31, 2012 in New York, NY. Today, Tanning’s works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Tate Gallery in London, and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, among others.

Artworks for Sale &
Auction Results

Dorothea Tanning (486 results)
Composition surréaliste, 1961, 1961

Dorothea Tanning

Composition surréaliste, 1961, 1961

Sale Date: March 23, 2018

Auction Closed

Untitled

Dorothea Tanning

Untitled

Sale Date: December 10, 2017

Auction Closed

16 Bl.: Ohne Titel (4 works), 1971

Dorothea Tanning

16 Bl.: Ohne Titel (4 works), 1971

Sale Date: November 15, 2017

Auction Closed

Birthday (self portrait at age 30)...., 1942

Dorothea Tanning

Birthday (self portrait at age 30)...., 1942

Sale Date: November 15, 2017

Auction Closed

LE SOIR À SARAGOSSA (ETUDE POUR), 1965

Dorothea Tanning

LE SOIR À SARAGOSSA (ETUDE POUR), 1965

Sale Date: October 21, 2017

Auction Closed

Birthday (Self Portrait at Age 30)

Dorothea Tanning

Birthday (Self Portrait at Age 30)

Sale Date: September 19, 2017

Auction Closed

Portrait of a Woman

Dorothea Tanning

Portrait of a Woman

Sale Date: September 28, 2017

Auction Closed

Sketches, 1941

Dorothea Tanning

Sketches, 1941

Sale Date: September 28, 2017

Auction Closed

Birthday (Self Portrait at age 30, 1942), 1970

Dorothea Tanning

Birthday (Self Portrait at age 30, 1942), 1970

Sale Date: July 12, 2017

Auction Closed

Composition aux personnages, 1961

Dorothea Tanning

Composition aux personnages, 1961

Sale Date: June 9, 2017

Auction Closed

TILDA

Dorothea Tanning

TILDA

Sale Date: June 8, 2017

Auction Closed

TWO WOMEN (BLUE)

Dorothea Tanning

TWO WOMEN (BLUE)

Sale Date: June 8, 2017

Auction Closed

Bâteau bleu (The Grotto), 1950

Dorothea Tanning

Bâteau bleu (The Grotto), 1950

Sale Date: June 15, 2017

Auction Closed

FRIEZE

Dorothea Tanning

FRIEZE

Sale Date: May 25, 2017

Auction Closed

Birthday (Self Portrait at Age 30), 1942

Dorothea Tanning

Birthday (Self Portrait at Age 30), 1942

Sale Date: May 2, 2017

Auction Closed

Birthday (Self portrait at age 30)

Dorothea Tanning

Birthday (Self portrait at age 30)

Sale Date: March 30, 2017

Auction Closed

TARANTELLE, 1939

Dorothea Tanning

TARANTELLE, 1939

Sale Date: March 23, 2017

Auction Closed

AVEC VUE SUR LE BOSPHORE, 1965

Dorothea Tanning

AVEC VUE SUR LE BOSPHORE, 1965

Sale Date: March 23, 2017

Auction Closed

POUR NOS OPPRIMÉS, 1966

Dorothea Tanning

POUR NOS OPPRIMÉS, 1966

Sale Date: March 23, 2017

Auction Closed

PAS DE DIMANCHE, 1968

Dorothea Tanning

PAS DE DIMANCHE, 1968

Sale Date: March 23, 2017

Auction Closed

Midsummer night, 1963

Dorothea Tanning

Midsummer night, 1963

Sale Date: March 9, 2017

Auction Closed

Birthday (Self Portrait at Age 30), 1942

Dorothea Tanning

Birthday (Self Portrait at Age 30), 1942

Sale Date: March 2, 2017

Auction Closed

Birthday (Self Portrait at age 30, 1942), 1970

Dorothea Tanning

Birthday (Self Portrait at age 30, 1942), 1970

Sale Date: February 14, 2017

Auction Closed

Visite jaune (Visite éclair), 1960

Dorothea Tanning

Visite jaune (Visite éclair), 1960

Sale Date: December 6, 2016

Auction Closed

English (US)

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