SALVADOR DALÍ (1904-1989)
La Jeune Fille de Jérusalem (The Girl from Jerusalem), Song of Songs, 1970s.
Technique: color etching with gold, Lana paper with filigree of ram's head
Sheet dimensions: 40 × 25 cm, 58 x 40 cm (with frame).
Numbering in pencil in lower left corner: 232/250
Work reproduced and described in two major catalogs of Salvador Dali's prints:
-Albert Field "The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali" 1996
-Michel & Löpsinger "Dali - catalogue raisonné of etchings and mixed-media prints, 1924-1980″.
State of preservation: good, light spots of foxing in upper margin, outside the composition; paper unpigmented
Surreal, multi-layered composition belonging to a rare collection of prints inspired by biblical texts and religious mysticism.
Two female figures are shown in the center - one outlined in outline, the other more corporeal, as if "eyeing" the phenomenon of light streaming down from the sky.
Flocks of lambs and Don Quixote are visible in the background, suggesting a symbolic pairing of spiritual themes with the obsessions of culture and literature.
The graphic is enhanced with subtle color accents and gilding (hand retouched with paint or flake gold).
Salvador Dalí - one of the most important representatives of Surrealism, born in 1904 in Figueres (Catalonia), died there in 1989. An extremely versatile artist: painter, graphic artist, writer, stage designer and eccentric, who gained worldwide fame thanks to his original personality and imagination. He became famous for his paintings full of dreamlike symbols, precisely painted with hyperrealistic detail. In parallel with painting, he created a rich body of graphic work - he illustrated the Bible, Dante' s Divine Comedy, Goethe's Faust and Boccaccio's Decameron, among others. Today, his works are in the world's most important museums, including MoMA in New York, the Reina Sofía in Madrid and the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres.
