Antony Penrose

Antony Penrose was born on 9 September 1947 in the London Clinic, central London. He is the son of Lee Miller, a model, fine art photographer and noted war correspondent, and Sir Roland Penrose, the surrealist artist, poet and biographer of Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró, Man Ray, and Antoni Tàpies, who co-founded the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in 1947.

External video
Farley Farm House
Man Ray Portraits: Lee Miller's house, tour with Antony Penrose (4:33), TheArtFundUK

His grandfather was Irish painter James Doyle Penrose, and his grandmother was the daughter of the philanthropist Lord Peckover. His uncle was polymath Lionel Penrose, whose children include physicist Oliver Penrose, mathematician and physicist Sir Roger Penrose, chess grandmaster Jonathan Penrose, and geneticist Shirley Hodgson.

He first lived at 11 Downshire Hill in Hampstead north London, but in 1949 his parents bought Farley Farm House, a farmhouse in the village of Chiddingly, East Sussex. His mother had depression during Penrose's childhood, so he was raised by a nanny, Patsy Murray, from a young age. He had dyslexia, but nevertheless went on to attend the Royal Agricultural College.[1]

Penrose's mother was his first mentor and main inspiration. The first camera he used was a Kodak with a 120 roll film, which produced 2+1⁄4-inch square negatives. At 14, whilst on a family visit, Penrose took some of his first amateur photographs of Picasso. In 1962, he and his mother went on a photography trip to Zimbabwe – but Miller fell ill and so left it to Antony to take the pictures which she could not using her Zeiss Contax. She told him "If you drop the camera I will break your neck".[2]

In the late 1960s Penrose took pictures of famous artists including Picasso, Joan Miró and Man Ray. Penrose's first career move was in agriculture, which he interrupted to spend several years on a round-the-world trip in a Land Rover with his friends Robert Braden and Peter Comrie, cousin Dominic Penrose, and his late wife Suzanna. During this period he took many photos for Farmers Weekly magazine. Later on, Penrose was introduced to film-making, working on films such as Kings Horses and Migrate to Survive. He established Penrose Film Productions Ltd which primarily focuses on documentaries, technical films and drama shorts.

Following the death of his mother, a cache of her work was discovered in the attic of the family home by Penrose's late wife Suzanna. It contained some 60,000 negatives, prints and manuscripts, out of which he and Suzanna created the Lee Miller Archives. Penrose has since written numerous books, articles and two plays on the subject of his parents and their associates. He is most notable for his 1985 book, The Lives of Lee Miller.

The discovery of Miller's work is said to have given Penrose a new perspective on his mother, who struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol dependency and depression when she was alive.[3]

Penrose now gives lectures worldwide on photography, fine art and his parents' work to museums and photographic societies and is accredited by the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies. He is a director of the Farley Arts Trust,[4] a registered charity,[5] which he founded to promote arts education in schools. The trust holds the annual Farleys Yard Arts Award for GCSE and A-level work from several local comprehensive schools.

For nearly four decades, the Lee Miller Archives have been preserving, licensing and supporting the legacies of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose. Antony, his daughter, Ami Bouhassane, and a small team have sought to re-establish Lee as one of the most important photographers of the 20th Century. The former home of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose, Farelys, has since been converted into a house museum, archive and gallery.[6] Today, the archives works across worldwide exhibitions, publishing and an upcoming feature film, Lee (2023).[7]

• Farley Farm House official site
• Lee Miller official site
• Roland Penrose official site