German-born Swiss artist who arrived in Paris in 1932 at eighteen and fell in with the Surrealists. In 1936 a lunch with Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar at the Café de Flore led directly to Object — a teacup, saucer and spoon covered in gazelle fur — which made her internationally famous at twenty-two and then followed her for the rest of her life, to her considerable irritation.
Meret Oppenheim was born in Berlin in 1913 and raised largely in Switzerland. She came to Paris in 1932, at eighteen, to be an artist, and was quickly absorbed into the Surrealist group around André Breton. She was younger than almost everyone in it, and the group's habit of casting women as muse rather than colleague shaped how she was seen for decades. Man Ray photographed her nude at a printing press in 1933, in the series Érotique voilée, and those images did as much to fix her public image as anything she made herself.
In 1936 she was having lunch with Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar at the Café de Flore. Oppenheim was wearing a bracelet she had designed, a metal tube wrapped in ocelot fur. Picasso remarked that you could cover anything in fur. Oppenheim replied that you could — even this cup and saucer.
She then went and did it. She bought a plain cup, saucer and spoon from a department store, covered them in the speckled fur of a Chinese gazelle, and produced the single most recognisable Surrealist object ever made. Breton put it in his exhibition of Surrealist objects at the Charles Ratton gallery in Paris in May 1936 and gave it the title Le Déjeuner en fourrure; it went to New York later that year for the Museum of Modern Art's Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, and MoMA bought it. It was the first work by a woman artist to enter that collection, and it is catalogued there simply as Object.
The piece works because it is a small, precise assault on the senses. A teacup is the most domesticated object there is, and fur in the mouth is close to unbearable to think about. It is also, unavoidably, a joke about women, refinement and appetite made by a twenty-two-year-old woman, which is why it has stayed argued-over for ninety years.
Success at that age nearly finished her. Oppenheim spent much of the following two decades in a prolonged crisis, producing little and destroying some of what she did produce, and only returned to sustained work in the 1950s and 1960s — sculpture, jewellery, poetry, and objects that had nothing to do with fur. She lived until 1985 and spent much of that later career resisting the reduction of her whole output to a single teacup. The resistance did not entirely work, which is part of the story.
Born in Berlin on 6 October; raised largely in Switzerland.
Arrives in Paris at eighteen and joins the circle around André Breton.
Man Ray photographs her for the Érotique voilée series.
The Café de Flore lunch with Picasso and Dora Maar; she makes Object.
Object is shown at the Charles Ratton gallery in Paris, then in New York, where MoMA acquires it.
Returns to sustained work after a long fallow period, in sculpture, jewellery and poetry.
Dies in Basel on 15 November.
Art & literary movement · 1924–1966
Oppenheim arrived in Paris in 1932 at eighteen and was absorbed into the Surrealist group around Andre Breton, who exhibited Object at the Charles Ratton gallery in 1936 under the title Le Dejeuner en fourrure.
A 1936 lunch at the Café de Flore with Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar. Oppenheim was wearing a fur-covered bracelet of her own design; Picasso remarked that anything could be covered in fur, and she answered that even a cup and saucer could be.
At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which acquired it in 1936. It was the first work by a woman artist to enter MoMA's collection.
That title was André Breton's, given when he showed it in Paris in 1936. MoMA catalogues the work simply as Object.
She had a long and difficult fallow period after the sudden fame, then returned to sustained work in the 1950s and 1960s in sculpture, jewellery and poetry — and spent much of her later life resisting the reduction of her career to the teacup.
Associated with · 1932
Oppenheim arrived in Paris in 1932 at eighteen and was absorbed into the Surrealist group around Andre Breton, who exhibited Object at the Charles Ratton gallery in 1936 under the title Le Dejeuner en fourrure.
Frequented · 1936
In 1936 Oppenheim was at lunch with Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar at the Cafe de Flore, wearing a fur-covered bracelet of her own design. Picasso's remark that anything could be covered in fur led directly to Object, the fur-covered cup, saucer and spoon now at the Museum of Modern Art.
The sources below include biographies, scholarly essays, interviews, and primary materials that informed this page. They reflect both the historical record and ongoing critical conversations about Meret Oppenheim and their work.
These references anchor the page in the documented record and in the scholarly conversations around Meret Oppenheim. Every claim on this page traces back to one or more of the works listed here.
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