On view September 8, 2026 – January 10, 2027
Faro Santander presents a previously unseen work by Leonora Carrington
The exhibition represents a milestone thanks to the public unveiling – a result of the research work by the Faro Santander team – of the oil on canvas Villa Pilar, which the artist dedicated and gifted to her doctor upon leaving the sanatorium and has remained hidden for decades. The painting is owned by Elena Morales and is being shown publicly for the first time, allowing for a deeper and more nuanced understanding of a crucial period in Carrington’s career. This work, featuring four anthropomorphic creatures characteristic of the artist’s imagination, has never been exhibited or reproduced before.
“The recovery of Villa Pilar is not only a material discovery, but also an opportunity to reclaim a long-veiled artistic and emotional memory” highlights Daniel Vega, director of Faro Santander. “During her stay in Santander, Carrington conceived one of the most poignant autobiographical accounts in twentieth-century literature, Down Below (1944), and produced a series of drawings and paintings that encapsulate the intensity of that experience”.
Co-organised with the Freud Museum in London, the exhibition Leonora Carrington: The Symptomatic Surreal is the first to bring together some of the drawings from her notebooks created during her time in the sanatorium, scattered until now. This period begins with the artist’s dramatic escape from Nazioccupied France and her subsequent hospitalisation at Dr Luis Morales’ sanatorium in Santander. As part of her treatment at the clinic, from 24 August 1940 to 1 January 1941, the medical staff encouraged Carrington to draw in order to “organise her thoughts and express them”. The artist also worked independently in her sketchbooks, creating numerous pencil drawings and two oil paintings: Down Below and Villa Pilar.
The Symptomatic Surreal is curated by Vanessa Boni.
