{"id":9247,"date":"2011-05-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-29T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salvador-dali.org\/fundacio-dali\/noticia\/l-obra-mes-cara-mai-comprada-per-la-fundacio-dali\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T10:20:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T08:20:15","slug":"the-most-expensive-painting-ever-purchased-by-the-foundation","status":"publish","type":"noticia","link":"https:\/\/www.salvador-dali.org\/en\/dali-foundation\/news\/the-most-expensive-painting-ever-purchased-by-the-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"The most expensive painting ever purchased by the Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fundaci\u00f3 Gala-Salvador Dal\u00ed presented the latest work acquired, an oil-on-panel work from 1934 entitled Enigmatic Elements in a Landscape<\/em>. The Foundation paid 11 million dollars (7.8 million Euros). The presentation event was conducted by Antoni Pitxot, Director of the Dal\u00ed Theatre-Museum, and Montse Aguer, Director of the Centre for Dalinian Studies.<\/p>\n

The Dal\u00ed Foundation’s aim\u00a0is to maintain the Figueres Museum\u2019s status as an essential place for understanding the pictorial evolution, thought and life of Salvador Dal\u00ed.<\/p>\n

Context of the work <\/strong>
\nToday we present Enigmatic Elements in a Landscape<\/em>, an oil-on-panel work dating from 1934, in which year Salvador Dal\u00ed was fully integrated as a member of the Surrealist group and took part in the many activities in which its members were engaged. His involvement was not devoid of controversy, however. At the beginning of that year, the group headed by Andr\u00e9 Breton made an unsuccessful attempt to expel the painter. It was also the year when Dal\u00ed, at the behest of the gallery owner Julien Levy, put on his first individual exhibition in the United States, and more specifically in New York.<\/p>\n

The \u201cenigmatic elements\u201d that appear in this work are assembled beneath a sky notable for its special, intense light. The main figure is that of the painter Vermeer of Delft, whom we see in the central part of the work. Vermeer was one of the reference painters for Dal\u00ed, acting as a major influence throughout his entire oeuvre. Right from an early age, Dal\u00ed was fascinated by a reproduction of The Lacemaker<\/em> by Vermeer that hung in his father\u2019s office. Nor was this the only painting of Dal\u00ed\u2019s in which the Dutch painter was the leading figure, for from that same year we also find: The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used as a Table (Phenomenologic Theory of Furniture-Nutrition)<\/em> (cat. no. 363); Masquerader, intoxicated by the limpid atmosphere, Ghost of Vermeer of Delft<\/em> (cat. no. 365); The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft <\/em>(cat. no. 367); Spectre of Vermeer’s Chair \/ Spectre of Vermeer of Delft<\/em> (cat. no. 366). In the first two, we see the painter from behind as a dark figure, kneeling, his arm supported by a crutch. In both cases, too, the figure has an exaggeratedly long leg that forms a table. In the first, The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used as a Table<\/em> (cat. no. 363), we see a bottle and a small glass on the table, while in the second, Ghost of Vermeer<\/em> (cat. no. 365), the table-cum-leg is not holding anything. In the other two works, Vermeer has become a spectre. The figure depicted is reminiscent of the one from The Spectre of Sex-Appeal<\/em> (cat. no. 338): they are figures upheld by crutches, almost anthropomorphic, but with their members amputated, being a collection of flesh and bones vaguely reminiscent of a human form. In the painting we are now presenting, on the other hand, Vermeer is shown at his easel, actively painting.<\/p>\n

The landscape he has before him presents \u2014 as the title tells us \u2014 \u201cenigmatic elements\u201d. Thus, at the bottom right of the work we see Dal\u00ed as a boy, dressed as a sailor, holding a hoop and a bone, and beside him, sitting with her back towards us, the figure of a nursemaid engaged in some unspecific task. Both elements recur very frequently for the Surrealist Dal\u00ed, and particularly in his work around that time.<\/p>\n

Enigmatic Elements in a Landscape<\/em> was a work little shown at the time it was executed. Indeed, from the 1930s we know of only two exhibitions at which it had been on display. In 1934, Dal\u00ed entered it for the Carnegie of Pittsburgh award, and it received a special mention of honour. Later, in 1939, it formed part of the exhibition Contemporary Art of 79 Countries organised by The International Business Machines Corporation Collection, which owned the work.<\/p>\n

Dal\u00ed\u2019s interest in Vermeer of Delft recurs over time. Around 1936, he painted Apparition of the town of Delft<\/em> (cat. no. 299), a work in which Dal\u00ed shows us in the background a view of the town where Vermeer was born. Later on, in 1955, the painter asked the Mus\u00e9e du Louvre if he could make a copy of The Lacemaker <\/em>by the master from Delft, and he was granted permission to do so. The result of this experience, on which documentary materials remain, is a copy of the work by Vermeer and the Dalinian version in which The Lacemaker<\/em> explodes into multiple rhinoceros horns.<\/p>\n

In Enigmatic Elements in a Landscape<\/em> we also find the cypresses, the architecture and other iconography characteristic of this period, though our attention is particularly drawn to the draped figure, which we only come across again in West Side of the Isle of the Death (Reconstructed Compulsive Image After B\u00f6cklin)<\/em>, also dating from 1934 (cat. no. 391). The tower, tower of enigmas, had been a feature that interested Dal\u00ed from the period of Mol\u00ed de la Torre down to the last days in Figueres. The setting and the clouds of Enigmatic Elements in a Landscape<\/em> are constant features in the works Dal\u00ed produced that year, as are the cypresses and the ruins that evoke in us various, open-ended meanings.<\/p>\n

The painting can be viewed from tomorrow in the Drawings Gallery (ground floor) of the Dal\u00ed Theatre-Museum in Figueres, in a montage expressly created for this major Surrealist work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fundaci\u00f3 Gala-Salvador Dal\u00ed presented the latest work acquired, an oil-on-panel work from 1934 entitled Enigmatic Elements in a Landscape. The Foundation paid 11 million dollars (7.8 million Euros). The presentation event was conducted by Antoni Pitxot, Director of the Dal\u00ed Theatre-Museum, and Montse Aguer, Director of the Centre for Dalinian Studies. The Dal\u00ed Foundation’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4608,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categoria-actualitat":[101,103],"class_list":["post-9247","noticia","type-noticia","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categoria-actualitat-adquisitions","categoria-actualitat-exhibitions"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe most expensive painting ever purchased by the Foundation - Fundaci\u00f3 Gala - Salvador Dal\u00ed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.salvador-dali.org\/en\/dali-foundation\/news\/the-most-expensive-painting-ever-purchased-by-the-foundation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The most expensive painting ever purchased by the Foundation - Fundaci\u00f3 Gala - Salvador Dal\u00ed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Fundaci\u00f3 Gala-Salvador Dal\u00ed presented the latest work acquired, an oil-on-panel work from 1934 entitled Enigmatic Elements in a Landscape. 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