Salvador Dalí

SALVADOR DALÍ I DOMÈNECH (Figueres, Girona, 1904 - 1989).
"Salvador Dalí during the reception at the Académie des Beaux-Arts", 1979.
Ink drawing on an original black and white photograph of Salvador Dalí during the reception at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in France on 09/05/1979.
Signed and dated.
Provenance: bequest of Paul-Louis Weiller, president of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.
Measurements: 17.9 x 23.8 cm; 42 x 48 cm (frame).

On May 9, 1979 Dalí was appointed foreign associate member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France. That day he delivered the speech "Gala, Velázquez and the Golden Fleece", in which he related Velázquez to his theories about the Perpignan station. In the French newspaper Aurore of May 10, 1979, one could read the following commentary by Michel Déon, of the Académie Française, speaking of Salvador Dalí: "Few people know that this artist is a wise technician, that he has rediscovered lost recipes and that his greatest and best-known canvases will one day be compared with those of Velázquez or Raphael".

This historic photograph - of which no other copy is known - comes from the bequest of Paul-Louis Weiller (1893-1993), president of the Académie des Beaux-Arts de France in 1979.

In the photograph we see in the foreground Salvador Dalí presenting Paul-Louis Weiller with an edition of the limited book BABAOUO on his arrival at the Académie des Beaux-Arts de France before he is appointed a member and puts on a suit identical to the one worn by the president that day.

On the reverse is a text that reads: "Photo signée par Salvador Dali lors de sa réception à l'Académie des Beaux-Arts" ("Photograph signed by Salvador Dalí during his reception at the Académie des Beaux-Arts"). It also includes the signature of the photographer who took the historic photograph.

The signed and dedicated photograph includes two drawings made by Dalí in a photograph of the event. It can be observed that above Dalí's signature we find the liquid crown, a crown inspired by a stroboscopic image of the fall of a drop of milk captured in 1935 by the inventor Harold Edgerton. This signature is one of the most prized and sought after by the artist and he only used it on very special occasions like this one: signing, dating and drawing over the photograph of the president of the Academy that appointed him as a foreign associate member, a very important recognition in the career of the artist from Figueres. The second drawing is a group of Dalí's surrealist characters jumping with joy for the artist's recognition.

At the ceremony, Salvador Dalí received from Paul-Louis Weiller the academic sword of the Académie des Beaux-Arts.