Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was a Spanish surrealist known for his technical skills, precise draftsmanship, and striking and bizarre images. Born in the Catalonia region in 1904, his most famous and recognizable painting “The Persistence of Memory” (informally known as the melting pocket watches) was created in 1939.  With that painting he developed his “paranoic-critical method” which deliberatly induced psychotic hallucinations to inspire his art. In the early 50’s he was commissioned to paint 100 scenes depicting each canto of Dante Aligheri’s epic poem “The Devine Commedy”. Written in the early 14th century, the poem follows Dante’s journey from the Inferno through Pergatory and eventually to Paradise. The painting below, which is titled “LaFarinata”, the 10th illustration from Inferno.  Our gallery is home to two more from this collection, one from Pergatory and one from Paradise.  All three are hand-signed in the verso, and bear the printer’s mark, making them very rare.