Salvador Dali (1904-1989) Spanish, "Cervantes" Framed Lithograph. Signature within  print bottom left. Label on reverse with title, information about the artist, and authentication from the printers. 

Overall Size: 15 1/4 x 12 1/4 in. 

Sight Size: 7 3/4 x 6 in. 

#4655  

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (known simply as Salvador Dali or even mononymously as Dali) was born in May 1904 in the small agricultural town of Figueres, Spain, located in the foothills of the Pyrenees, only sixteen miles from the French border in the principality of Catalonia. The son of a prosperous notary, Salvador Dali spent his boyhood in Figueres and at the family’s summer home in the coastal fishing village of Cadaques where his parents built his first studio. Many of his paintings reflect his love of this area of Spain. The young Salvador Dali attended the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. Early recognition of Salvador Dali’s talent came with his first one-man show in Barcelona in 1925. He became internationally known when three of his paintings, including The Basket of Bread (now in the Museum’s collection), were shown in the third annual Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1928. The following year Dali held his first one-man show in Paris. He also joined the Surrealists, led by former Dadaist Andre Breton. That year, Dali met Gala Eluard when she visited him in Cadaques with her husband, poet Paul Eluard. She became Dali's lover, muse, business manager, and chief inspiration, and they made a home together in Port Lligat. Dali soon became a leader of the Surrealist movement. His painting The Persistence of Memory with melting watches is still one of the best-known Surrealist works. As World War II approached, the apolitical Dali clashed with the Surrealists and was “expelled” from the Surrealist group during a “trial” in 1934. He continued to exhibit works in international Surrealist exhibitions throughout the decade, but by 1940 Dali was moving into a new style that eventually became known as his “classic” period, demonstrating a preoccupation with science and religion. During World War II Dali managed to escape from France, sailing from Lisbon, Portugal to New York City in August of 1940. Dali and Gala spent the next eight years in the United States, dividing their time between New York and the Monterey Peninsula in California. His time in America made him virtually synonymous with the Surrealist movement, even though he proclaimed it “dead” at an exhibition in 1941. His iconic elongated mustache, wide-eyed expression, and flamboyant clothing made him an instantly-recognizable celebrity, and he published his autobiography in 1942. After publishing a novel in 1944 and working with Walt Disney Studios on an unfinished animated film, he returned to Port Lligat, Spain, where he spent much of the rest of his creative life. His public support of Franco alienated him from most other artists, and he embraced Catholicism late in life after the death of his estranged father. His ever-expanding scientific curiosity also had a profound impact on his later art and style, but towards the end of his life he descended into depression due to drug addiction and worsening Parkinson’s disease. He died of heart failure in 1989; meanwhile, Generalissimo Franco was still dead.