Salvador Dalí

SALVADOR DALÍ I DOMÈNECH (Figueras, Girona, 1904 - 1989).
"Le Cerf Malade", from the series "Le Bestiaire de la Fontaine Dalinise", 1974.
Hand-illuminated drypoint engraving on Japan paper, copy 95/250.
Signed and justified by hand.
Measurements: 58 x 40 cm (print); 77 x 58 cm (paper); 97 x 77 cm (frame).

Rita Reif noted about the series to which this work belongs: "La Fontaine's fables are rooted in ancient traditions, including those attributed to the legendary Greek slave Aesop, the Roman writer Phaedrus and the Indian storyteller Bidpai. However, La Fontaine transformed these tales by turning simple prose into refined poetic verse. He was also able to endow many of these stories with a sharp political undertone and subtle social satire directed at the court of Louis XIV."

It belongs to the folder "Le Bestiaire de la Fontaine Dalinise", composed of twelve engravings. Series catalogued in Michler and Lopsinger, "Dalí. Catalogue raisonné of etchings and mixed-media prints. 1924-1980), no. 653-664 (Prestel-Verlag, 1994).

During his early years, Dalí discovered contemporary painting during a family visit to Cadaqués, where he met the family of Ramon Pichot, an artist who regularly traveled to Paris. Following Pichot's advice, Dalí began to study painting with Juan Núñez. In 1922, Dalí stayed at the famous Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid to begin studying Fine Arts at the San Fernando Academy. However, before his final exams in 1926, he was expelled for claiming that there was no one there fit to examine him. That same year Dalí traveled to Paris for the first time. There he met Picasso, and established some formal characteristics that would become distinctive of all his work from then on. His language absorbed the influences of many artistic styles, from classical academicism to the most groundbreaking avant-garde. At that time, the painter grew an eye-catching moustache imitating Velázquez's, which would become his personal trademark for the rest of his life. In 1929, Dalí collaborated with Luis Buñuel in the making of "An Andalusian Dog", in which scenes from the surrealist imaginary were shown. In August of that same year he met his muse and future wife Gala. During this period, Dalí held regular exhibitions in both Barcelona and Paris, and joined the surrealist group based in the Parisian neighborhood of Montparnasse. His work greatly influenced the direction of surrealism for the next two years, and he was hailed as the creator of the paranoiac-critical method, which was said to help access the subconscious by releasing creative artistic energies. The painter landed in America in 1934, thanks to art dealer Julian Levy. As a result of his first individual exhibition in New York, his international projection was definitively consolidated, and since then he has been showing his work and giving lectures all over the world. Most of his production is gathered in the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueras, followed by the collection of the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg (Florida), the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Salvador Dalí Gallery in Pacific Palisades (California), the Espace Dalí in Montmartre (Paris) or the Dalí Universe in London.