Description

Número de catàleg raonat OG:
OG 004
Propietari:
Ajuntament de Figueres
Ens dipositari:
Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí
Fons:
Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí, Figueres

Dalí engraved this portrait of his father and sister using drypoint on celluloid. This proof was discarded because of an accidental fold in the paper during printing, although other versions of the same work exist. In 1944, in his autobiography The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí the artist describes a version of this work reproduced under the title Portrait of My Father and Sister. By his own account, it was created after his definitive expulsion from the San Fernando art school in Madrid in 1926: ‘On my arrival in Figueras I found my father thunderstruck by the catastrophe of my expulsion […] With my sister, he posed for a pencil drawing which was one of my most successful of this period. In the expression of my father’s face can be seen the mark of the pathetic bitterness which my expulsion from the Academy had produced in him.’ (1) Although Dalí associated this work with his definitive expulsion from the San Fernando, documentation from the period indicates that it was most likely created after his first temporary suspension, during the 1923-1924 academic year. The other known versions were extensively worked in pencil: Retrat del pare i la germana de l’artista (Portrait of the Father and Sister of the Artist), in the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (Barcelona), and Retrat del pare de l’artista i germana (Portrait of the Artist’s Father and Sister), in the Colección Abelló (Madrid). A version of this work was shown at Dalí’s first solo exhibition at the Dalmau Galleries in Barcelona, between 14 and 27 November 1925, as evidenced by a reproduction in the small exhibition catalogue. Likewise, another version appears in the brochure for his second solo exhibition at the Galeries Dalmau, from 31 December 1926 to 14 January 1927. __________ (1) Dalí. S., Vida secreta de Salvador Dalí, Editorial Poseidón, 1944, p. 286. Illustrated in black and white on pages 256 and 257, ‘VII. Mis Obras Raras”. ID 24252

Contact
  1. Original prints (1)
  2. Associated graphic elements (1)