DALI Salvador (1904 1989) and Jean CLEMMER... - Lot 73 - Eric Caudron

DALI Salvador (1904 1989) and Jean CLEMMER (1926 2001) - "Three fashion photographs taken for the Daily Telegraph Magazine (6 Sept. 1968), taken in Dalí's house-studio in Port Lligart, Catalonia." Three fashion photographs made for the Daily Telegraph Magazine (6 Sept. 1968), taken in Dalí's house-studio in Port Lligart, Catalonia. 1-" The Soft Watches". 1968. Portrait of Salvador Dalí and Amanda Lear for the cover of the British magazine. Photograph in colors, pasted on light cardboard. Silver print of the period, titled in pen on the back. 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 soft watch - a quote 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 the back). 2-" Chrisalide [sic] ". 1968. Color photograph, pasted on light cardboard. Silver print from the period, titled in pen on the back. Retouched with gouache by Salvador Dalí: addition of painted motifs in trompe-l'oeil, inspired by the short jacket worn by the model. 36,9 x 29,1 cm. Condition A (Very slight insolation. Small wear to the corners. Remains of mounting on the back). 3- "Danza del Fuego". 1968. Color photograph, pasted on light cardboard. Silver print of the period, titled in pen and pencil on the back. Retouched with gouache by Salvador Dalí: addition of a devil and fumaroles in the background. 27,3 x 35,8 cm. Condition A (Very slight insolation. Small wear to the corners. Remains of mounting on the back). Provenance of the three photographs: Galerie Michèle Broutta, Paris. During the 1940s, Salvador Dalí became a true icon of popular culture. The star of surrealism, whose first appearances in the press date back to 1919, cultivated an image of exuberance that was highly photogenic and telegenic. 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 hid this passionate relationship: "If it is true that I love publicity, for a thousand and one reasons, all of them respectable, it is an undeniable fact that publicity loves me with an even more violent passion [1]", he wrote around 1945. From the mid-1930s, and especially from the 1950s, the figure of Dalí, with his exalted gaze and crooked moustache, regularly appeared on 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 also delivers numerous articles, illustrations and advertisements for art and fashion magazines, such as Vogue, Vanity Fair, or the Daily Telegraph Magazine. Our three photographs are from a series commissioned in 1968 by the Daily Telegraph Magazine, as part of an article devoted to Spanish fashion. On this occasion, the painter called upon the talents of the Swiss photographer Jean Clemmer, whom he had met in 1962 and with whom he had already worked. The shots were taken in his studio house in Port Lligart, facing the sea, a setting with a unique architecture designed by the artist. Dalí poses 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 sometimes spectacular stagings: for the Danza del Fuego, the artist asked the inhabitants to set fire to the waters of the bay of Port Lligat. After the shooting itself, there followed a patient work of painting, prepared in advance by sketches made by Dalí on enlarged photographs. The artist enhanced the proofs with surrealist motifs drawn from his own repertoire: on the photograph intended for the cover of the magazine, in which he posed alongside Amanda Lear, he painted a limp watch, a reference to one of his most famous paintings, The Persistence of Memory (1931). These small details are executed with a precious and refined hand, customary to the artist, who is equipped for the occasion with a jeweler's magnifying glass and a "single-hair brush". The work is done with natural gouache, a paint with opaque colors ground with water and thickened with gum arabic and honey. These photographs are unique in the Spanish painter's career, as he explained in the columns of the Daily Telegraph Magazine: "I found this work very inspiring", "however, I will never do anything like it again. I don't believe in repetition.