Roland Penrose (1900-1984)

Good Shooting

Penrose encountered Surrealism while living in France in the 1920s. There he met the movement's founder Andre Breton, the poet Paul Eluard and the painter Max Ernst who became a major influence of Penrose's art. Penrose's connections with continental Surrealists helped to bring the movement to Britain and he was a key organiser of the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition.

The figure in Good Shooting is thought to be modelled on the American photographer Lee Miller who had moved to London with Penrose in 1939. The pose may be based on a ship's figurehead Penrose found while holidaying in Cornwall. Although Penrose advised against trying to interpret Surrealist imagery, it has been suggested that Good Shooting shows how the gunshots have released the figure into a world of tranquil beauty.

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