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Salvador Dali Foundation Presents Recently Acquired Paintings Made in the 1920s

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Written by Carter Lombardo   
Saturday, 31 October 2009 01:29

Left: Salvador Dalí, Figura de espaldas, 1925, temple y óleo/cartón, 74,5 x 53 cm. © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres, 2009. Right: Salvador Dalí, Ninfas y señoritas en la fuente de un jardín, c. 1921, temple/cartón, 74,5 x 53 cm. © Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, 2009.

FIGUERES, SPAIN - The Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí has presented its latest acquisition, an oil painted on both sides titled "Figure from Behind" (front) and "Nymphs and Young Ladies in a Garden Fountain" (back). The provenance of the painting is from a private collector and since 1925, with the exception of the Retrospective during the Year of Dalí, had not been seen in public. In the painter’s view, we cannot forget the work of Ismael Smith, Marià Andreu or Néstor Martín-Fernández de la Torre, all of them friends of Salvador Dalí, with whom he had a relationship, especially with the latter, also a friend of Federico García Lorca.

These are two paintings that share the same support: a cardboard painted on both sides by a Young Dalí. In one, a very lyrical playful scene. In the other, a portrait of Anna María, the painter’s sister. The first work made, in chronological order, was "Nymphs and Young Ladies in a Garden Fountain". This painting can be inscribed in the festive theme of other Works created during 1921. "Nymphs and Young Ladies in a Garden Fountain" transports us into the surroundings, of idyllic echoes, where nymphs take baths in a large fountain, with two rows of trees to the side. The painter captures the moment of the bathing ritual. In this painting, Dalí shapes his search for a decadent symbolism. The feminine figures that appear evoke a classical Arcadia, and give off sensuality, refinement and in their exquisite forms, combined with a rich chromatic that evokes delicacy.

We do not know the reasons that led Dalí to take advantage of the other side of the cardboard, but it is not the first time he does this. It is also not the first time that Anna María is a central theme. The first portraits of his sister were dated in 1923. This portrait, "Figure from Behind", can be dated in 1925.

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