Sir Roland Penrose was born in 1900 and educated in Reading and at Cambridge University. From 1922 until 1936, he lived in France, painting and becoming friends with surrealist painters and poets. After returning to London, he organized the International Surrealist Exhibition in 1936 and, until 1939, painted and exhibited in London and Paris with the Surrealist Group. After the Second World War, during which he served as a War Office lecturer in camouflage, he became one of the founders of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, of which he was president for many years. He also served on the British Council and the Arts Council and as a Trustee of the Tate Gallery. He died in 1984, a few months after his friend Joan Miró. Penrose’s publications include Picasso: His Life and Work, Man Ray, Tapies, and Scrap Book, 1900–1981.

Antony Penrose is a photographer and author. The son of Sir Roland Penrose and Lee Miller, he is director of the Lee Miller Archive and Penrose Collection at his parents’ former home, Farley Farm House. He has published a number of books, including a collection of his mother’s photography, Lee Miller’s War, and some children’s books.