Salvador DALI (1904-1989) and Jean CLEMMER (1926-2001) - Three fashion photographs for the Daily Telegraph Magazine (Sept. 6, 1968), taken in Dalí's home studio in Port Lligart, Catalonia. 1-" Soft Watches". 1968. Portrait of Salvador Dalí and Amanda Lear for the cover of the British magazine. Color photograph, mounted on light card. Vintage silver print, titled in pen on verso. Signed on the front and retouched in gouache by Salvador Dalí: the artist has painted an ant and, escaping from an oar held in his right arm, a limp watch - a quotation from one of his most famous paintings. 36.8 x 27.8 cm. Condition A (Very slight insolation. Corners slightly rubbed. Remains of mounting on reverse). 2-" Chrisalide [sic]". 1968. Color photograph, mounted on light card. Vintage silver print, titled in pen on verso. Retouched with gouache by Salvador Dalí: addition of trompe-l'oeil painted motifs, inspired by the short jacket worn by the model. 36.9 x 29.1 cm. Condition A (Very slight insolation. Minor wear to corners. Remains of mounting on reverse). 3- "Danza del Fuego". 1968. Color photograph, mounted on light cardboard. Vintage silver print, titled in pen and pencil on verso. Retouched in gouache by Salvador Dalí: addition of a devil and fumaroles in the background. 27.3 x 35.8 cm. Condition A (Very slight insolation. Minor wear to corners. Remains of mounting on verso). Provenance of the three photographs: Galerie Michèle Broutta, Paris. In the 1940s, Salvador Dalí became a veritable icon of popular culture. The star of surrealism, who first appeared in the press in 1919, cultivated a highly photogenic and telegenic image of exuberance. The media loved the painter, who lent himself to interviews, cameras and posing sessions, with a consummate art of theatricality. A promoter of his work as well as of himself, Dalí never concealed this passionate relationship: "If it's true that I love advertising, for a thousand and one reasons, all respectable, it's an undeniable fact that advertising loves me with an even more violent passion [1]", he wrote around 1945. From the mid-1930s onwards, and especially in the 1950s, Dalí's figure, exalted gaze and crooked moustache, regularly graced the covers of the international press (The Time; Photo Monde; Revista; Mundo Hispanico; The Studio; Gentlemen's Quarterly; La Vanguardia; De Spiegel; Les Nouvelles Littéraires, etc.). The artist has also produced numerous articles, illustrations and advertisements for art and fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and the Daily Telegraph Magazine. Our three photographs are from a series commissioned in 1968 by the Daily Telegraph Magazine, as part of an article on Spanish fashion. On this occasion, the painter called on the talents of Swiss photographer Jean Clemmer, whom he had met in 1962 and with whom he had already worked. Orchestrated by Dalí, the shots were taken in his studio house in Port Lligart, overlooking the sea: a unique architectural setting designed by the artist. Dalí posed with several models, including his muse and friend Amanda Lear. They were dressed by the greatest Spanish couturiers of the time: Paco Rabanne, Elio Berhanyer, Pedro Rovira, Carmen Mir and Manuel Pertergaz. The work sessions gave rise to some spectacular stagings: for Danza del Fuego, the artist asked the locals to set fire to the waters of Port Lligat bay. After the actual shooting, Dalí carried out a patient painting process, prepared in advance by sketching on enlarged photographs. The artist enhanced the prints with surrealist motifs from his own repertoire: on the photograph for the magazine cover, where he poses alongside Amanda Lear, he paints a limp watch, a reference to one of his most famous paintings, La Persistance de la mémoire (1931). These minute details are executed with the artist's usual refined, precious hand, using a jeweler's loupe and a "single-hair brush". The work is done in natural gouache, an opaque paint ground with water and thickened with gum arabic and honey. These photographs are unique in the Spanish painter's career, as he explains in the columns of the Daily Telegraph Magazine: "I found this work very inspiring-formidable", "however, I will never do anything like it again. I don't believe in repetition". Set of 3 pieces in presentation frames.