Salvador dalí wife painting

Summary of Gala Dalí

Although not a practicing artist or poet, Gala was nevertheless a force of such personality she became for many the female face of the Surrealist movement. A muse to no fewer than three of is key members - Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, and Salvador Dalí - Gala grew into an astute, and severe critic and, particularly in the case of her bashful second husband, Dalí, an uncompromising businesswoman and go-between. Indeed, Gala is usually given credit for propelling Dalí to international superstardom. As a direct (and indirect) result of her driving ambition she attracted many enemies, but the Dalís made an exotic celebrity couple, mixing with the cream of international high society. Gala herself later emerged as an icon of haute couture, appearing at public events and in magazines bedecked in her husband's fashion collaborations with the likes of Christian Dior and Elsa Schiaparelli.

Accomplishments

• Arguably the most unique feature of Dalí's body of work is that he only ever used one female model. More than a muse, Gala is nothing short of a motif in his art. B
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  Dalí and Gala – The Love Story

  Today, we present the story of Salvador Dalí and Gala – his wife, without whom Dalí would have never become an icon of modern art.

  Gala’s real name was Helena Ivanovna Diakonova. She was 10 years older than Dalí and, when they met in 1929, she was married to the poet Paul Éluard and mother to a little girl. She also had a lover, Max Ernst, who painted her in a number of portraits.

  It was love at first sight. In his Secret Life, Dalí wrote:

  She was destined to be my Gradiva, the one who moves forward, my victory, my wife.

  The name Gradiva comes from the title of a novel by W. Jensen, the main character of which was Sigmund Freud. Gradiva was the book’s heroine and it was her who brought psychological healing to the main character.

  She immediately became his muse. Gala is a frequent model in Dalí’s work, often in religious roles such as the Blessed Virgin Mary in the painting The Madonna of Port Lligat. 

  In the early 1930s, Dalí started to sign his paintings with his and her name as “it is mostly with your blood, Gala, that I paint

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  Gala Dalí Library Guide

  Salvador Dalí’s wife and muse, Gala, whose real name was Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, was considered a mysterious and intuitive woman, as well as inspiring and perceptive. There has been confusion about her correct birth date, with sources ranging from 1892 and 1895. Her daughter, Cécile, states that it was August 18, 1894, but both biographers Dominique Bona and Ian Gibson list it as August 26, 1894 (the Julian calendar date, which corresponds to September 7, 1894 of the Gregorian calendar). Born in Russia, she spent her childhood in Moscow, graduating from the Brukhonenko Academy for young ladies with high grades. In 1912, Gala was admitted for a deteriorating case of tuberculosis to the Clavadel Sanatorium in Switzerland, where she met her future husband and poet, Paul Éluard.  They were married in 1917 and her only daughter, Cécile, was born the following year. Éluard was instrumental in introducing Gala to key figures of the Surrealist movement, such as André Breton and Louis Aragon.

  After a brief affair with the painter Max Ernst ended in 1924, Gala an