Salvador Dalí

SALVADOR DALÍ (Figueres, Girona, 1904–1989).
“Paradise Lost,” 1974.
Lithograph on paper. Print no. 29/150.
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Printer: Grapholith, Paris.
Publisher: Ethis, Geneva.
From the series “Les Vitraux” / “Stained Glass Windows.”
Measurements: 64.5 x 50 cm; 79.5 x 60 cm (frame).

The work is part of the “Les Vitraux” suite, a series in which Dalí develops an image of intense chromatic luminosity and a distinctly visionary character. In “Paradise Lost,” the artist addresses the biblical theme of the loss of paradise through the figures of Adam and Eve, depicted with elongated anatomies and a nervous line, enveloped in a web of blue, green, violet, and orange lines. Eve appears naked, serving as the visual focal point of the scene, while the second figure is set within a space charged with symbolic tension.

On the right, the devil bursts in in the form of a fantastical monster with an open maw, leaning on a crutch. This element, a recurring motif in Dalí’s imagery, introduces a note of fragility and dreamlike quality, reinforcing the surrealist interpretation of the scene.

Salvador Dalí was one of the key figures of Surrealism and 20th-century art. After training at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts in Madrid, he joined the Parisian avant-garde circles and developed his own artistic language based on the paranoid-critical method, technical precision, and an iconography of immense visual power. His work is represented in institutions such as the Dalí Theater-Museum in Figueres, the Reina Sofía Museum, MoMA in New York, and the Tate Modern in London, among others.