Dali’s Spectacular Portraiture Continues to Fascinate!

By Paul Chimera

Salvador Dali Historian

I think I know why Salvador Dali’s portrait work is so intriguing: it gives us an opportunity to see the way Dali saw when his vantage point was not through the lens of his paranoiac-critical vision. In other words, his imagination – for the most part – did not play a leading role in the outcome on canvas. Instead, he had to convey a true representation of his subject matter, his sitter.

As a result, we get to see Dali the realist, the disciplined, commissioned conveyor of what anyone would see, and not – for a change – an often bizarre interpretation nuanced by Dali’s inimitable creative twists.

Of course, that’s not entirely true. Because invariably (though not always) Dali added peculiar flashes of his unique iconography that lent an irrepressibly surrealist aura to an otherwise realistic portrait. And that’s an important characteristic of Dali’s portraits: they captured the genuine look of their subjects, frequently with startlingly photographic precision. By the same token, they almost always also featured background oddities and surprises that put an unmistakable Dalinian stamp on them.

What I want to do in today’s blog post is take a look at a selection of Salvador Dali portraits, together with photographs of their subjects. You can decide for yourself how closely Dali came to capturing a good likeness of the man or woman who commissioned him.

Let’s start with his controversial portrait of Ann Woodward, painted in 1953. Apparently Ms. Woodward had some issues with the way her portrait turned out; sued Dali; lost. The lady was an American socialite best known as a murder suspect for the death of her husband, William Woodward, Jr. – a wealthy heir and prominent member of New York society circles – who had planned to divorce her. She was never convicted of the crime.

Portrait of Ann Warner

Photo of Ann Warner

Two years earlier, in 1951, Dali painted the portrait of Jack Warner of Warner Bros. Studios fame. Dali got to know him when he was living in California during World War II and courted a number of important entertainment luminaries. Dali also painted an arguably more interesting portrait of Mrs. Jack Warner.

Portrait of Col. Jack Warner

Jack Warner

Warner’s wife

In 1954, Dali painted the portrait of Prince Gourielli, husband of the famed cosmetics queen, Helena Rubinstein, whose portrait Dali made nine years earlier.

Portrait of Helena Rubinstein

Portrait of Prince Gourielli

Dali, Ms. Rubinstein and the portrait

Helena Rubinstein’s princely husband.

In 1955, Dali painted Sir Laurence Olivier as Richard III – perhaps the most famous portrait of the many Dali created. Various photos were taken of Dali making preliminary sketches of the iconic actor.

Olivier as Richard III

Dali sketches Olivier costumed for Richard III

Three excellent portraits by Dali emerged in 1958. C.Z. Guest posed for a truly exquisite portrait. Lucy Douglas “C.Z.” Guest was an American stage actress, author, columnist, horsewoman, fashion designer and socialite. Her status as a fashion icon really comes through in this stunning canvas, which fittingly includes horses in the background.

C.Z. Guest portrait by Dali

Photo of C.Z. Guest

In the same year, Chester Dale – and his beloved dog, Coco – sat for Dali, resulting in a dandy portrayal of the philanthropist and art collector (though it’s doubtful Coco posed for long!). And we can see a clear comparison between the photo here of John Langeloth Loeb, Sr. – American investor and executive who served as president of Loeb, Rhoades & Company – and the painting Salvador Dali did of him.

Dali’s portrait of Chester Dale and Coco

Photo of Chester Dale

Dali’s portrait of John Loeb, Sr.

Photo of Mr. Loeb

Here’s the Portrait of Sao Schlumberger of 1965, along with a photo of her in later years posing with the picture. The Portuguese beauty was married to an aristocrat French oil-industry tycoon (and was said to have lots of affairs!).

Portrait of Sao Schlumberger

Ms. Schlumberger with her earlier portrait by Dali

And there’s the rather strange portrait of Jonathan and Ann Green of 1963. The Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali’s excellent online Catalog Raisonne features this interesting communication from Mr. Green to Mr. Dali:

Portrait of Jonathan & Ann Green

The Greens pose for Salvador Dali’s portrait of them.

“This work is a portrait of Jonathan and Ann Green commissioned by Montgomery M. Green, a farmer and patron of the arts. In the letters he sent to the artist, he clearly exposes how painting should be: ‘This portrait might contain an allegorical message contrasting what is good and worthwhile in our American and Western bourgeois Christian world against the evil forces that now confront the whole Christendom.

“There are, of course, numerous ways that this challenge can be symbolized,” the note continues. “For instance, I should think that the lighting of the picture might show beams of sunshine on the Western Christian side with dark thunder clouds overhanging the Eastern atheistic side. […] My suggestion that having Jonathan, the boy, depicted holding a space helmet under his arm occurred to me because he was born at the very dawn of the space age and is facing life in that age. You expressed disapproval of this concept, but I was not entirely clear as to what your objection was. Certainly I am not insisting on this anymore than on any of the suggestions that I have made, but I am setting the matter down here in order to explain to you what prompted the thought.’ (Letter from Montgomery M. Green to Salvador Dalí, April 20, 1962).

Fundacio’s Dali Catalog Raisonne Features Rarely Seen Portraits & More

By Paul Chimera

Salvador Dali Historian

What an adrenaline rush to discover works by Salvador Dali you’ve never seen before! It’s like encountering this master painter for the first time. Or like a wide-eyed child opening a present under the Christmas tree and going flailing-arms-bonkers over what’s inside.

Thanks to the Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali in Figueres, Spain, Santa brought me – and the world – a special gift, as it has just announced completion of its wonderful on-line catalog raisonne of Dali paintings.

This important research tool had documented and published, online, original works through 1964 for some time. Now the years spanning 1965to 1983 have been completed, and they include a good number of paintings I’ve never seen before – most especially works of portraiture.

“The Catalog Raisonne of Paintings by Salvador Dali,” the Fundacio notes on its website, “is an online project for the definitive and scientific cataloging and attribution of the paintings made by Salvador Dali between 1910 and 1983. The project is conceived as a work in progress, modified and enriched with information compiled by the specialists of the Fundacio Gala-Salvador Dali and other scholars and collaborating institutions.”

I alluded to portraiture a moment ago, and this fascinating segment of Dali’s diverse and prolific oeuvre warrants some attention. In fact, two Dali scholars I know have been hard at work for several years now on a proposed book on Dali’s portraiture, recognizing that this body of work represents a unique dimension of the artist’s talent, not to mention a key chapter in his life as a self-employed “businessman.”

And while few people would use the term “businessman” to characterize Salvador Dali, the fact is the man knew how to bring in business! And, oh yeah, how to make a fortune at a vocation from which very few ever reap significant financial gain.

Portraiture was found treasure for Dali. Not that he didn’t work diligently for it; he certainly did. But people practically stood in line – checkbook in hand – to enjoy the distinction of having their portrait painted by the unpredictably famous kingpin of surrealism. Society portraits helped make Dali rich. And they’re also examples of some of his most impressive work.

Most of the portrait reproductions shown here are of people few of us would know. Some are famous, including Helena Rubinstein, C.Z. Guest, Sir Lawrence Olivier, Jack Warner, and the great collector and benefactor, Chester Dale (along with his unwittingly famous poodle, Coco!). One portrait in particular still blows my mind – the Briggs Family portrait – because it’s so resoundingly atypical of what most of the world has come to associate with the “madman” of Surrealism!

Detail of Helena Rubinstein portrait

C.Z. Guest, by Dali

Sir Lawrence Olivier as Richard III

Dali’s portrait of Jack Warner of Warner Bros. Studio fame

Dali’s portrait of Chester Dale & “Coco”

Dali’s Briggs Family portrait shows off Dali’s incredible technical skill.

Among other works pictured for the first time (to my eye, anyway) in the Fundacio’s Catalog Raisonne is a surprising picture called “Path in Pubol,” painted in a classic and Impressionist style that seems to defy the fact that it was created by Salvador Dali around the same time he painted his spectacular “Hallucinogenic Toreador.”

“Path in Pubol” never published before now.

Such discoveries of “new” material really do keep Dali’s legacy and mystique alive. For me, they’re like wonderfully wrapped presents whose treasures that lie within definitely do not disappoint. Here are a few more portraits to enjoy:

Mrs. Jack Warner

Jolly Dali Found Special Inspiration in Holiday Magic!

By Paul Chimera

Salvador Dali Historian

Thanksgiving in America is over, so next up are Christmas and Hanukkah – and Salvador Dali’s creativity most definitely did not take leave for the holidays. In fact, his gift of artistic genius seems to have shone in a magical way, as seen in a number of his Christmas-themed works.

“Noel”

Most notable is his beautiful “Noel” of 1946, which found wide popular exposure when it graced the special Christmas cover of Vogue magazine. Its editors pointed out to readers that the two arched sections, when joined together, form the face of the Madonna.

Dali’s Vogue Christmas cover has long been a collectible.

The snow on the stone arches, the shadow of a kneeling angel at lower left, the festive, gleaming pine trees – they all converge to make this one of the most delightful and truly lovely works ever created by the master of Surrealism.

One organization that took notice of jolly Dali was Hallmark, which commissioned the artist to produce 19 designs for greeting cards, only a few of which are seen here. One of those card images – to my knowledge never actually produced by Hallmark – is this one of Santa Claus, seen below.

I supposed drawers curiously emerging from Santa’s torso (a literal chest of drawers!) was just too radical a departure from the traditional depiction of old St. Nicholas. But when I only recently first saw this illustration, I fell in love with it.

Who but Salvador Dali would find a clever way to meld the charm and tradition of Santa Claus with the psychoanalytical symbolism of Freud! The drawers that have long been a Freudian symbol of hidden secrets and repressed thoughts also accord fittingly with packages of holiday surprises. The two drawers-cum-gift boxes offer soft watches and an adorable bunny with oddly elongated ears.

Metaphorically, it’s not hard to see how the drawers of Santa are a revelation of the soul and spirit of Christmas itself. But I see something further in this wonderful portrayal of the main man of Christmas (besides Jesus, of course, whose birth is celebrated on this special day).

Here we see Salvador Dali a bit more “humanized.” The somewhat mysterious Surrealist kingpin, with his saucer eyes and outlandish mustache, his ever-present walking stick and irrepressible penchant for publicity, is seemingly transformed and “normalized” into a man with a robust sense of humor and a charming way of interpreting a holiday icon.

The face of Dali’s Santa is rather interesting. My guess is that Dali used a model for this, as it seems to capture a very specific countenance. A face that looks like one that just might be a bit weary from all the hard work dear Santa invests each December 25^th!

Of course, we see young Dali, decked out in his popular sailor suit, looking up in wonderment at the towering pillar of Christmas, who holds a soft watch and reveals two others in his top drawer. I love Dali’s etched signature in the large foreground snowball.

What we get to unwrap here is Salvador Dali’s sense of humor and his ability to be child-like in his interpretation of Santa Claus – a side of the artist we don’t often see when we consider the usual dreams and nightmares that typify his work. The image is really beautifully executed.

Here, for a moment, Dali was a child. For which so much of Christmas is meant.

Jolly Dali!

‘Dead Body’ Discovered in Huge Salvador Dali Masterwork

By Paul Chimera

Salvador Dali Historian

Ever look at something you admire over and over again, then discover – either on your own or through the keen eye of someone else – something you’d just never noticed about the item before?

That happened to me this week, thanks to Tampa, Florida artist Steven Kenny, who, in addition to being a highly successful and very talented painter, is also a docent at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.

I confess that, while Mr. Kenny has detected a remarkable similarity between a rather haunting detail of the Dali painting in question – “Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid” – and a work by the 16^th century German artist, Hans Holbein, I didn’t even know the detail in the Dali canvas even existed! And I have a hunch most people have not been aware of it either.

Here’s the discovery . . .

In the lower right quadrant of the large painting is a group of Arabs pointing rifles at other Arabs – some standing, some kneeling – achieving the effect of a kind of molecular model. But Mr. Kenny’s discernment comes in when we home in on the bottom horizontal part of the lowest cube: it’s a man lying on his back.

That in itself is a revelation to me. I’d never noticed it before. But it’s not just any person.

It seems more than coincidental that the reposed figure, who appears to be deceased, bears an astonishing resemblance to Hans Holbein’s dramatic painting, “The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb.” Examining Holbein’s extraordinary work in the reproduction of it here, and a close-up of the detail from the Dali work (which is alternately known as “Homage to Crick and Watson”), makes it very clear to me that Salvador Dali absolutely had the Holbein masterpiece in mind when he painted this small, virtually hidden element in his 1963 canvas.

While Dali nods to DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) in both the Arabian tableau and the genetic model at middle left, he was also drawing a correlation between science and religion. This explains the various religious details in the work, including God floating in the heavens with his arm reaching down and lifting his Son, who can be faintly made out above and to the left of the back view of Gala.

Floating in the upper left clouds is the prophet Isaiah, which echoes the manner in which he was captured centuries earlier by the brush of Raphael – a fascinating comparison and nod to an important artistic precursor that was again first brought to my attention by artist Kenny.

Raphael’s depiction of Isiah nearly identical to Dali’s at upper left of “Galacid…”

There’s a lesson in all of this. Art is better appreciated, at least for my money, when you not just look at it – but really look at it. When you study it closely. Carefully. Thoroughly. Critically. Don’t assume, as I and many have, that all sides of that Arabian cubic composite, for instance, are alike; one just might come to life. Or death.

I can think of no greater artist whose work invites this kind of scrutiny than Salvador Dali. Now I can’t wait to visit the Dali Museum in Florida again and look anew at “Galacidalacidesoxiribunucleicacid.”

Dali Flies onto the American Scene

By Paul Chimera

Salvador Dali Historian

One of the most unusual paintings by Salvador Dali – a work most people have probably never seen or even know about, and whose title is another one that seems to confound us – is “Allegory of an American Christmas” of 1943.

The oil on board is in some respects Daliesque, yet also looks noticeably different from the Spanish surrealist’s work, especially with respect to the landscape (not easily recognized as Dali’s beloved Costa Brava) and, in particular, the odd-looking airplane that emerges from the large rock-like egg – or is that egg-like rock?

Salvador Dali and Gala Dali were 39 and 49 years old, respectively, when this work was painted – about nine years after they made their first trip to the United States. Dali had often expressed his desire to eventually travel to America (which he and Gala did by ocean liner, as he had a fear of flying), where he envisioned great opportunity to expand his fame, hone his creativity, and improve his financial success as an artist.

Dali saw America as a new world, and, on both a figurative and literal level, it truly was for him. Some of his work – including the famed “Persistence of Memory” – had already been exhibited at the Julian Levy Gallery in New York City. Now the world was Dali’s oyster, he believed, and the plane launching through the huge egg-like form suspended over the landscape symbolized his venture into a whole new world of inestimable opportunity.

The hole in the egg takes the shape of North America, while the representation of South America helps us see the rock-egg as also a globe. Taken as a whole, the image obviously signifies a sense of rebirth and change, as the young Catalan painter and leading exponent of Surrealism was crashing onto the American art scene just as the plane smashes through the airborne egg to explore a new space.

It’s a curious-looking plane at that! It reminds me of a blimp, in some ways, while its ribbed design and bird-like wings give it an almost animal (or vegetable-?) -like quality. Meanwhile, the dark, eerie clouds seem to foretell that something momentous is about to occur, echoed by the rather foreboding shadow cast by the immense egg. Two curious human figures are seen below, while the terrain is rather rough and ragged.

It strikes me as perplexing that a work intended to symbolize a re-birth has a nonetheless dark aura about it.

Why this painting is titled “Allegory of an American Christmas” isn’t clear. Unless we consider that Dali was using Christmas more broadly as symbolic of birth. This would make sense, as Salvador Dali was in effect re-born, once he established a foothold in the soil of the American zeitgeist. (The canvas is dated 1934, but it’s likely Dali erroneously transposed the numbers here.)

The theme of rebirth appeared in two other major works by Dali, both of which also employed the egg symbolism: “The Metamorphosis of Narcissus” (1937) and “Geopoliticus Child Watching the Birth of the New Man” (1943).

“Geopoliticus Child…” (above) and “Metamorphosis of Narcissus” (below) bear an obvious resemblance to “Allegory of an American Christmas”

‘Temptation of St. Anthony’ a Perennial Favorite Among Dali Fans

By Paul Chimera

Salvador Dali Historian

“The Temptation of St. Anthony” is easily one of the most widely reproduced and well-known of the masterful oil paintings by the king of Surrealism, Salvador Dali. Ironically, it came into being as a result of an artists’ competition among U.S. and European artists – and went on to become one of Dali’s most superb and compelling masterpieces.

Dali painted this 34 inch x 47 inch canvas in response to a contest promoted by a film production company in 1946. Artists were to depict their vision of the temptation of St. Anthony, which would be used in the movie, “The Private Affairs of Bel Ami.”

Ironically, the winning painting – a work created by the well-known Surrealist painter Max Ernst – is one virtually no one seems to have remembered, while Dali’s “losing” entry has endured as one of the, well, coolest surrealist paintings ever.

Take that, Max Ernst!

The title of the painting pretty well tells us what we’re seeing: the naked ascetic visually seduced by visions of desire and lust, as a cavalcade of temptations approaches – including a rearing horse whose hooves look like they’re about to descend right upon St. Anthony, who finds solace and safety in the rock on which he steadies himself. The crucifix he thrusts before the monstrous herd is intended to exorcise the demonic vision.

The march of temptations includes naked women – one inside an ornate palace – while five elephants on skyscraper-tall spidery legs give the impression of weightlessness and a result of the impossible weight they bear, including the one at rear, on whose back sits an enormous brick tower that rises up through a cloud on which a glimpse of the El Escorial can be seen – the castle-monastery of King Philip II of Spain. This structure, for Dali, “symbolized divine order’s power over earthly temptations,” according to the catalog of the great Dali retrospective held in 2005 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A master paints a masterpiece.

Meanwhile, there is no question the pachyderm with the Egyptian obelisk on its back owes to the sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, erected in 1667 on the Piazza della Minerva in Rome, Italy. Dali and Gala traveled in Italy during the Spanish Civil War and definitely saw this monument.

“The Temptation of St. Anthony” features a wonderful sense of movement, from the elephant bringing up the rear, though the progression of each animal, which gets larger and larger as they end in the terrifying rearing steed, whose front legs are anatomically correct while its rear ones echo the stork-like legs of the accompanying pack.

It is, in my view those outrageous legs that literally elevate this painting to the status it’s accorded among Dali enthusiasts. Many have told me it’s among their favorites, and it’s the remarkable sense of levitation with which the stork-like legs infuse the scene. This is made all the more apparent when the immense march of the animals is contrasted with the three dwarfed human figures who appear in the barren landscape below.

Footnote: It’s regrettable that they picked Ernst’s painting for that 1947 movie drama, starring George Sanders and Angela Lansbury. The 8-second close-up of the canvas – admittedly a very fine work – was the only color segment in the black & white film. So many of us wish they’d chosen the Dali.

A Dali ‘Disappears’ for 70-Plus Years!

By Paul Chimera

Salvador Dali Historian

There I was in 2005, working through the spectacular Salvador Dali centennial retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art – a great museum that owns, among other Dali’s, one of the greatest Dali paintings ever: “Soft Construction with Boiled Beans; Premonition of Civil War.”

What a delight seeing so many impressive paintings by the Surrealist master in honor of the 100^th anniversary of Dali’s birth in 1904.

But nothing prepared me for what I was suddenly to come upon.

It was a 1940 oil that was quintessentially Dali, yet, in some ways, not typical of Dali. It was masterfully painted, carefully thought out. It hadn’t been seen publicly for decades. And it was utterly unknown to me.

The work is “Book Transforming Itself into a Nude Woman,” and, while relatively small at 16 in. x 20 in., it was a big hit at the show and made a huge impression on me.

This Dali was off the grid for some 70 years.

Nothing excites me more at a Dali exhibition than discovering a work for the very first time. Many of us who think we’ve seen it all marvel time and again when something unknown suddenly emerges, making us reevaluate just how well we really do know this master of surprise.

Invariably such works ended up in private hands, often for decades, completely off the grid and unavailable for reproduction in books about Dali. In the case of “Book Transforming…,” the picture had been exhibited a year after it was painted, but then purchased by an anonymous collector, where it remained all these years.

Judging from a reproduction alone, you can see the work exudes that perfectionist quality that typified virtually all Dali paintings, watercolors, drawings, and prints. Impossible images seem real, thanks to Dali’s photographic technique. Untypical, however, is the faceless male figure holding what looks like a skull; he seems alien and not consistent with how Dali usually handled human figures.

It was believed Dali painted this curious work while staying at Hampton Manor in Virginia – the place where he penned his autobiography, “The Secret Life of Salvador Dali.” Some theorize this may account for the literary subject of the present work.

Of course, the key element here is not just a book, but the double-image of blank pages of a book that, at the same time, form the buttocks of a reclining woman – or at least the beginnings of one. There’s an interesting kind of dual energy and sense of movement here – the book morphing into a human being, while the ball-headed figure across from it seems to be energetically reaching out toward the woman’s body. (The butter knife slicing into human flesh calls to mind Dali’s “Autumn Cannibalism” of 1936).

“Autumn Cannibalism”

This human- yet alien-like form recalls the enigmatic male figure in “Philosopher Illuminated by the Light of the Moon and the Setting Sun” (1939), while the pen and inkwell have come to symbolize two basic thoughts: Dali’s allusion to his notary father; and the male sex and female breast, represented by the pen and inkwell, respectively. At least one author advances the idea that the ribbon hanging over the page in the open book connotes a flaccid penis.

“Philosopher Illuminated by the Light of the Moon and Setting Sun”

Painted in the early years of World War II, this canvas seems to evoke a disquieting, subtly sinister mood – a kind of eerie dream that might consume the thoughts of someone living during a foreboding time in world history.

What other unknown Dali’s are out there, long in private hands but destined to appear out of nowhere?

Dali’s Realism Shines Through in ‘Geodesic Portrait of Gala’

By Paul Chimera

Salvador Dali Historian

If there was any other artist in human history who worshipped his wife in a more pervasive and dramatic way than Salvador Dali revered his Russian wife, Gala, this historian doesn’t know about him.

Salvador Dali without Gala would have been unimaginable. Impossible. She was truly his muse; his life and career manager; and his leading model, after his sister Ana Maria held that title in his early pre-Surrealist, pre-Gala years.

One of the greatest portraits Dali painted of Gala ironically doesn’t show her face, save for a hint of her left forehead and cheek. This rear view was a favorite vantage point for Dali, and one of his finest portraits of Gala is “Gala, Nude, Seen From Behind.”

“Gala, Nude, Seen From Behind”

“Geodesic Portrait of Gala” (1936) has, for me, always exuded a bit of mystery. For starters, it has a classical, non-surrealist look about it, despite it being painted in the 1930s – Dali’s most fertile Surrealist period. And the cap Gala wears is not a head piece I’ve ever seen in any other depiction of her.

And, like the previously mentioned “Gala, Nude, Seen from Behind,” we again only see a glimpse of Gala’s left forehead and cheek. Moreover, the title itself is a bit enigmatic, although the reference to architecture is clearly revealed in the pencil study Dali made for this work, which shows the same view of Gala peering at a building resembling the shape of Gala’s head. And the horse-shoe (which also appears on the building’s dome in the sketch) has never been seen before or since in any portrait of her. Dali was quoted thusly: “In the hat there is already the horse-shoe of our luck, figuring the distinctive crescent moon of the effigy of Helen.”

Salvador Dali clearly was not only history’s greatest Surrealist, but he was one of its greatest realists, too. The masterful handling of the quilted, embroidered jacket is exquisite. And Dali’s adroit handling of light and shadow is reminiscent of Renaissance masters’ work.

The jacket – a favorite of Gala’s – was seen in several other important Surrealist canvases by Dali, including “The Average Fine and Invisible Harp,” “Gala and the Angelus of Millet Preceding the Imminent Arrival of the Conical Anamorphoses,” and “The Angelus of Gala,” all shown here.

While the posture of Gala in “Geodesic Portrait” lends a sort of traditional classicism to the scene, we must also consider that Gala’s bare shoulder provokes a kind of vulnerability and sexuality in the work – an interesting dichotomy as Dali juxtaposed classicism with what would be at least a hint of eroticism or sensuality.

Just when people came to expect the more iconic surrealist images that populated the majority of Salvador Dali’s works during the decade of the ‘30s, along came the remarkable 8-1/4 inch x 10-5/8 inch oil on panel, “Geodesic Portrait of Gala.” It’s owned by the Yokohama Museum of Art in Japan.

Dali’s ‘Columbus’ Reveals Unexpected New World Discovery!

By Paul Chimera

Salvador Dali Historian

It’s been said that Salvador Dali was ahead of his time. He proved that statement in dramatic fashion when he painted possibly the most complex and striking masterwork in his vast catalog of paintings: the immense oil on canvas, “The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus” (sometimes referred to as “The Dream of Columbus”), 1959, which hangs in the permanent collection of The Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida.

I had the privilege and pleasure of essentially living with this great masterpiece virtually every day when I was director of publicity for the original Salvador Dali Museum in Beachwood, Ohio, an eastern suburb of Cleveland, in the early 1970s. It shared what was called the Salon of the Masterworks with “The Ecumenical Council” of 1960 and the colorful “Hallucinogenic Toreador” of 1970.

The museum collection’s owner, A. Reynolds Morse – who with wife Eleanor were benefactors of the Dali Museum that relocated from Ohio in 1982 to open permanently in St. Pete – recalled seeing this 14-foot-high canvas on Dali’s easel in Port Lligat while it was still in work – a commission from Huntington Hartford. Morse, a highly opinionated man, told Dali that the strange, drably monochromatic band that runs horizontally across the bottom of the work seemed quite out of place, unappealing, and a mistake.

Dali had other thoughts.

He assured Morse that, in time, he would come to understand what the divine Dali had in mind with this admittedly strange departure from the content and palette of the vast majority of the huge picture, which took nearly two years to complete.

Some ten years later, Reynolds and Eleanor looked at each other in self-discovery. It was the 20^th of July, 1969, and – as Neil Armstrong uttered those iconic words about it being a giant leap for mankind – the Cleveland collectors realized that the sea urchin with orbit-like bands encircling it was Dali’s prediction that an American would be the first to claim footfall on the moon!

Talk about an “Aa-ha” moment!

And sure enough, it was all there: the sea urchin looking like the moon; the long, deep shadows; the desolate lunar-like surface; the orbiting bands; and an American stepping onto the new world!

Or, put another way: Dali ahead of his time. It was genius.

Extraordinary view of ‘Columbus’ being cleaned/restored in St. Pete, FL

As if all that wasn’t enough, Dali also paid homage in “Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus” to the 500^th anniversary of the death of the great Spanish artist, Velazquez – Dali’s all-time favorite painter, quoting certain details from the large Velazquez work, “Surrender at Breda.”