Elisa Breton

Elisa Breton (b. Viña del Mar in Chile, 25 April 1906, d. Le Kremlin-Bicêtre, 5 April 2000 ), was a French artist and writer, and the third wife of the French writer and surrealist André Breton.

Biography Elisa Breton's maiden name was Elisa Latte Elena Bindhoff Enet. An accomplished pianist, she married the Chilean politician Benjamin Claro Velasco. They had a daughter, Ximena. After her divorce, she immigrated to the United States with her daughter. On 13 August 1943, Ximena drowned during a boat trip off the coast of Massachusetts. After attempting suicide, Bindhoff Enet was joined in New York by a friend who came from Chile to support her.

In 1943, Bindhoff Enet first met André Breton, the leader of the Surrealist movement, Breton lived on the same street, and frequented this restaurant. He noticed Bindhoff Enet, introduced himself as a French writer and asked permission to exchange a few words with her. The attraction was mutual:

In the summer of 1944, they traveled in the Gaspé Peninsula in the northeast of Canada. Bindhoff Enet was the inspiration behind Breton's book Arcane 17, She produced very few works and did not like to “push herself foreword” among the group; she seldom exhibited and is therefore not as well known as other artists in the group. However, Marie Wilson, an American artist active in the Paris Surrealist Group from 1953 to 1960, called Elisa Breton, “The most remarkable woman in the group… a profound and marvelous woman, who contributed enormously to the evolution of surrealism”.

In the shadow of surrealism's theorist, she expressed her talent by making surrealist boxes as well.

Selected works Surrealist boxes La Loi du vison, 1959 Oiseau de plastique, ressort de réveil, dé à jouer, 1970 Lucy, faire, 1971 Ne quittez pas, 1972 Oiseau-lire, 1973 Méduse, sculpture, 1959

Writing Preface to the exhibition catalog devoted to the painter Jean-Paul Riopelle, 1949 Translation of Alpha et omega by Edvard Munch, éd. Le Nyctalope, 1980 André Breton, album of ten original photographs signed by Elisa, éd. Au fil de l'encre, Paris, 1993