Yves Tanguy spent much of his early life in Paris, but he had little formal artistic training. After being introduced to André Breton and his circle, he joined the Surrealists and began to develop his unique personal style of vast, nearly abstract landscapes. At the outbreak of World War II, he followed his second wife, Kay Sage, to the United States.
He travels to London with his wife, Jeannette Ducrocq, to hang his first British retrospective at Peggy Guggenheim’s gallery, Guggenheim Jeune. The show is a great success: by Guggenheim’s own account, Tanguy found himself rich for the first time in his life, and she buys his “Toilette de l’Air” and “The Sun in Its Jewel Case” (Le Soleil dans son écrin) for her collection.
1938
Begins a relationship with Kay Sage
After seeing the work of the fellow Surrealist artist Kay Sage, he begins a relationship with her that will lead to his second marriage.
1938
An affair with Peggy Guggenheim
During the London trip with his wife, Tanguy begins an intense affair with Peggy Guggenheim, for whom he paints two earrings. The affair continues in London and Paris and ends only when he meets the woman who will become his second wife.
1939
Follows Kay Sage to New York
With the outbreak of the Second World War Sage returns to her native New York, and Tanguy, judged unfit for military service, follows her; he will spend the rest of his life in the United States. Other accounts place the move in 1940.
