Salvador Dali (1904-1989)

Nu de dos

Details

Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
Nu de dos
signed and dated bottom right 'Salvador Dalí 1945'
red chalk on laid paper mounted on board
25 1/8 x 19 in. (64 x 48.2 cm.)
Drawn in 1945

Literature

M. Gérard, Dalí de Draeger, New York, 1968, fig. 37 (illustrated)
The Frances and John L. Loeb Collection, London, 1982, no. 69 (illustrated)
R. Descharnes, Salvador Dalí: The Work, The Man, New York, 1984, p. 297 (illustrated in color)

Exhibited

New York, Galerie of Modern Art, Salvador Dalí, 1918-1965, Dec., 1965-Feb., 1966, no. 197
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Dalí, Nov., 1970-Jan., 1971, no. 131 (illustrated)

Lot Essay

The present work is a study for an oil painting (fig. 1) which Dalí also executed in 1945, working on it for two hours each day over the course of five weeks. Dalí described the inspiration for the oil as follows:

When I was five years old, I saw an insect that had been eaten by ants and of which nothing remained except the shell. Through the holes in its anatomy one could see the sky. Every time I wish to attain purity, I look at the sky through the flesh. (Quoted in R. Descharnes, op. cit., p. 297)

(fig. 1) Salvador Dalí, Ma femme nue regardant son propre corps devenir marches, trois vertèbres d'une colonne, ciel et architecture, 1945
Private Collection