Grace Pailthorpe (1883-1971)

March 7 1937-4 (Sandbumptious)

During the 1920s Pailthorpe became a leading figure in Freudian psychoanalysis and criminal psychology. In 1935 she met the artist Ruben Mednikoff and the two began a project of mutual psychoanalysis using art as a therapeutic 'shortcut to the unconscious'. This was perfect Surrealist material and both exhibited in the 1936 exhibition in London.

They catalogued and wrote extensive notes and interpretations for each picture. Mednikoff's work tended to focus on obsessions and childhood trauma, while Pailthorpe's often centred on themes of motherhood and were generally lighter in mood, as seen in Sandbumptious. Surrealism's founder Andre Breton described Pailthorpe as 'the best and most truly Surrealist' of the British artists.

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