Introduction
Jacqueline Lamba Breton (sometimes Jacqueline Lamba or Jacqueline Lamba-Breton; November 17, 1910, Saint-Mandé – July 20, 1993, Rochecorbon) was a French painter, married (1934 – 1943) to André Breton.
Biography
Lamba was born in the Paris suburb of St. Mande, on November 17, 1910 (contrary to at least one source she was not American). Her father, José Lamba, died in an automobile accident in 1914, when Lamba was three years old, and her mother, Jane Pinon, died of tuberculosis in 1927.
In 1925, she entered the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs from which she graduated in 1929. While attending the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs she joined the French Communist party. 1926-29, attends and graduates from the Ecole de L'Union Centrale des Arts Decoratifs. Following her mother's death, Lamba moved into a "Home for Young Women," run by nuns, on the Rue de l'Abbaye. During this time she supported herself by doing decorative designs for various department stores.
Lamba participated in the Surrealist Movement between 1934-1947. She frequently appeared in the poetry of André Breton, whom she married in 1934. They had a daughter, Aube Elléouët Breton, but separated in 1943.
Following her separation from Breton, Lamba married David Hare, an American sculptor. It is claimed she had a sexual affair with fellow artist Frida Kahlo.
For the last five years of her life, Lamba had Alzheimer's disease.