Lee Miller was one of the Second World War's most prominent photojournalists and soon-to-be subject of a new film starring Kate Winslet. In September, a lucky few will get the chance to meet her granddaughter over a Surrealist-themed dinner and embark on a private tour of Miller's East Sussex home.
The event is being hosted by Olga Polizzi’s hotel nearby hotel — The Star, Alfriston — as a one-off Lee Miller-inspired experience, to coincide with the upcoming film Lee, which stars Kate Winslet.
On September 5, guests will arrive at The Star in East Sussex — sister hotel to Hotel Endsleigh in Devon and Tresanton in Cornwall — for supper followed by, the next day, a visit to Farleys House and Gallery for a private tour of the former home of Miller.
On the private tour, guests will be able to glance upon the extraordinary artworks left behind by some of Miller’s more famous friends, as well as the photographer’s own photographs. And that evening, her granddaughter, Ami Bouhassane, director of Farleys House and Gallery, will host a ‘Surrealist Lee Miller Dinner’ in The Star’s dining room.
Elizabeth ‘Lee’ Miller was born in 1907 in the US and was a fashion model in New York, then a fashion and fine art photographer in Paris, France, before famously working as a war correspondent for Vogue throughout the Second World War.
Ignoring pleas from friends and family, begging her to return to safety, Miller went on to cover events such as The Blitz, the liberation of Paris and the horrors of Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps.
Over the course of the War, Miller regularly collaborated with fellow American photographer David E. Scherman, who was working as a correspondent for Life magazine. Their most famous co-assignment is arguably the photograph that Scherman took of Miller in the bathtub of Adolf Hilter’s Munich apartment, the dust of Dachau on her boots deliberately dirtying the bathroom.
It was taken — by coincidence — on the same day as Hitler’s suicide: April 30, 1945.
English art and radio critic Frederick Laws Miller attend a one-night performance of Pablo Picasso’s play ‘Desire Caught By The Tail’ at the Rudolf Steiner Hall in London, March 1950.
Following the War, Miller — portrayed by Kate Winslet in the film, which comes out in UK cinemas on September 13 — moved to Britain, settling in Chiddingly, East Sussex (a 15-minute drive from The Star), and suffered from bouts of clinical depression, perpetually haunted by the things she had seen in Nazi-controlled Europe.
Her home became something of a Mecca for the great and good of the mid-20th century Surrealist art world, and she counted Picasso, May Ray and Henry Moore amongst her visitors.
Rear of Farleys House, Muddles Green by Jim Holden. © Lee Miller Archives, England 2024. All rights reserved (www.leemiller.co.uk).
Miller died in 1977, of cancer, and her ashes were scattered in the Farm House’s herb garden.
Among some of her many other talents, Miller was an extraordinarily creative chef and the evening will be a chance to bring some of self-penned recipes to life — many of which have been recorded for posterity in Bouhassan’s own book, ‘Lee Miller; A life with food, friends and recipes’.
The ‘Discover Lee Miller Experience’ at The Star, Alfriston, costs £1,043 based on two people sharing a ‘Double Room’, and includes two nights on a bed and breakfast basis, supper on the first night, a private tour of the Farmhouse and Gallery and the Surrealist dinner.
Standalone tickets to the four-course Surrealist dinner are also available, from £125 per person.
Visit www.thepolizzicollection.com/the-star/events/upcoming-events/discover-lee-miller-from-the-star-alfriston for more information and to book.
