Dina in the Red Dress

About this book

Summer 1940. As France falls to Nazi Germany, Dina Vierny, a young activist and muse, inspires the most ambitious works by renowned artist Aristide Maillol. Despite their significant age gap, the two become fierce collaborators. But Dina is restless in the face of extreme political oppression. Under the cover of night, she leads Resistance missions through the Pyrenees mountains, bringing artists, intellectuals, and activists to the relative safety of Spain. An untold number of refugees owe their freedom to a woman guiding the way in a distinctive red dress.In this powerful work of reclamation, biographer Lynne Bermont reveals that Dina's wartime bravery was but one era of her life. A creative in her own right, Dina helped shape the postwar cultural landscape of Paris teeming with artistic energy. Between movie screenings with Henri Matisse and gallery visits with Pierre Bonnard, Dina amassed a spectacular art collection and later smuggled dissident art from the Soviet Union. Her unconventional career culminated in establishing a gallery, a museum, and a sculpture garden in the center of Paris that evince her legacy as a champion of Maillol and avant-garde artists. Today, Maillol's serene but bold sculptures of Dina, a testament to their partnership, can be found at museums around the world, including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and London's Tate Modern.Beautifully rendered in cinematic detail by Bermont, Dina in the Red Dress pairs an incredible story of friendship between a fearless radical and a visionary artist with a rousing, timely reminder of how art can empower both resistance against fascism and the persistence of hope.