The second stage of the exhibition delves into Leonor Fini’s relationship with the cosmopolitan city of Trieste, its architecture, its vibrant literary life, and the future developments of her artistic research, shaped by encounters with Milanese artists and the Surrealist movement in Paris. In Trieste, she met intellectuals such as James Joyce and Rainer Maria Rilke, who left a lasting mark on her imagination. In Milan, her participation in the Second Exhibition of 20th-Century Italian Art alongside Achille Funi, Giorgio de Chirico, and Mario Sironi positioned her early pictorial investigations within the realm of Metaphysical Art and New Objectivity. Her arrival in Paris proved prolific and decisive, as she engaged with Surrealist figures such as Max Ernst, Paul Éluard, Salvador Dalí, Man Ray, and André Breton, leading her to paint masterpieces like L’Arme blanche (1936) and Autoportrait avec Charlie Holt (1939).