A Vast Horizon - Artists and Lovers, Freedom and War

Late summer 1937. Europe is inching towards war. In the South of France a group of friends picnic in a secluded clearing. The women have peeled down their dresses to their waists. A couple kiss playfully while the others look on, laughing. The moment is captured in a now-iconic image by photographer Lee Miller. Some of the friends are well known, others less so: the dancer Ady Fidelin, the poet Paul eluard and his wife Nusch, the Surrealists Man Ray and Roland Penrose. They are spending the summer with fellow artists Dora Maar, Eileen Agar and Pablo Picasso. In A Vast Horizon biographer Anna Thomasson tells the story of their creativity, friendships and pursuit of freedom set against the tense political backdrop of the 1930s, the Second World War and its aftermath. Tracing their lives through their photographs, artworks, poems and letters, from the heady weeks of creativity, sex and collaboration of that Mediterranean summer through the tumultuous years that followed, it is the story of rebellious lives and the redemptive power of art.

Product details

• Authors: Anna Thomasson, THOMASSON ANNA
• Assisted by: Racine Stephanie (Reader / Narrator)
• Publisher: Picador Uk
• Languages: English
• Age Recommendation: from age 18
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 26.03.2026
• EAN: 9781447245568
• ISBN: 978-1-4472-4556-8
• No. of pages: 320
• Subjects: Non-fiction book; NON-CLASSIFIABLE, Biography & True Stories, Memoirs, HISTORY / Europe / France, General & world history, French Riviera / Côte d’Azur, General and world history, c 1930 to c 1939, Autobiography: arts and entertainment, Biography: arts and entertainment, Photojournalism and documentary photography