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Rasch Rasch Rasch Mein Puppen Warten...
(Hurry, Hurry, Hurry...My Dolls Are Waiting)
Oil on Canvas
45" x 57.5"
1975

1975’s Rasch, rasch, rasch, mein puppen warten......(Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, My Dolls are Waiting…), 45”x 57.5”, is one of Fini’s largest oils on canvas. Although many words have been written about it, most of them have been misinterpretations which served only to further their author’s own agenda. The painting is, in fact, a self-portrait. Each of the elements of the work applies to various aspects of Leonor. Viewing the figure on the far right we can see her as “Earth Mother.” This was a part of her that few people ever saw. Those that were privileged enough to be the recipent of her largess were indeed fortunate. At one and the same time Fini was capable of great swings of temperament; from unthinking cruelty to equally unthinking generosity.

The intelligence, sexuality, innocence and curiosity present in the figures are all parts of her persona. The cross-dressed child harks back to her being disguised as a boy to thwart kidnap attempts by her father during her early childhood.

Nowhere else is she so obviously a painter of women ‘without apology.’ There is no coyness or flirtation in the sexually charged images as there was none in Leonor. One of the more startling things about Leonor is, that at a time when no other ‘female’ artist was able to rise to prominence without being aligned with a male who was more famous, Leonor succeeded; the sole example of this departure from the norm.

It can be said that whereas Max Ernst had affairs with every female artist that came through Paris in the 1930’s, it was Leonor who had the affair with Ernst.

Rasch, rasch, rasch…often appears as a two page spread in books and catalogs. It has been central to every major retrospective and museum exhibition that has taken place after it was painted. Adding to its authentication is a cat scratch on the back where one of her cats, all of whom had free run of her home, slid down the painting