Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)


Révérence du Groseillier signed and dated '1969 GDALI' (lower right)gouache, watercolor and 19th century stipple engraving on paper15 3/4 x 10 in (40 x 25.4 cm)Executed in 1969
|Nicolas and Olivier Descharnes have confirmed the authenticity of this work.ProvenanceJean Schneider, Basel (commissioned from the artist in 1969).Galerie Orangerie-Reinz, Cologne (acquired from the above in 2000).Private collection (acquired from the above, and sold: Bonhams, London, June 18, 2013, lot 37).Castle Fine Art, London.Acquired from the above by the present owner on January 3, 2014.ExhibitedCologne, Galerie Orangerie-Reinz, Rückblick auf Positionen der Galerietätigkeit, November 10, 2000 - January 15, 2001, n.n. (illustrated in the catalogue p. 75).LiteratureC. Sahli, Salvador Dalí: 257 Editions Originales, 1964-1985, Paris, 1985, nos. 168-179.R. Michler & L.W. Löpsinger, Salvador Dalí: Catalogue Raisonné of Etchings and Mixed-Media Prints, 1924-1980, Munich, 1994, no. 353 (illustrated p. 176).A. Field, The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí, New York, 1996, no. 69-11-J (illustrated p. 55).Salvador Dalí's Révérence du Groseillier is a fabulous illustration of Dalí's artistic approach and his quite literal desire to take what is ordinary and subvert any preconceived notions. To execute this work, Dalí appropriated a very traditional 19th century botanical lithograph, designed for scientific edification, and painted over it with his characteristically fantastic embellishments. Dalí played with the void spaces left by the engraver's needle to conjure a figure, whose form elegantly mimics the shape of the gooseberry branch while seeming to be inextricably connected to it. The concepts of illusionism and metamorphosis are central to Révérence du Groseillier and within Dalí's greater oeuvre. The artist even claimed to have the ability to see multiple meanings and patterns within a single image, recalling his childhood fascination with reading shapes in the clouds of a summer storm: "I became master of that thaumaturgical faculty of being able at any moment and in any circumstance always to see something else," (quoted in R. Radford, Dalí, London, 1997, p. 157).This double-vision underpins Dalí's "paranoic-critical method," which was the core tenant of Dalí's artistic theories and one he expounded upon in his much lauded La Femme Visible (1930). To Dalí, a paranoid state heightens the meaning and reality of objects and images. To harness this hyperreality is to access a new dimension of representation: "It is by a frankly paranoiac process that it has been possible to obtain a double image: that is to say the representation of one object which, without the least figurative or anatomical distortion is at the same time the representation of a totally different object" (S. Dalí, La Femme Visible, Paris, 1930, p. 15). Dalí's keenness to convey a dual reality is evident Révérence du Groseillier, but also apparent is his desire to imbue humor into works meant for serious, academic study. Here, the artist enjoyed himself as he poked fun at the demons and fairies lurking behind the straight-laced images of 19th century science. It even is possible to interpret the work as a response to the prevailing currents of Pop Art, particularly in addressing questions of mass media reproduction and the use of the botanical illustrations as embellished 'found objects.' Dalí was friendly with Andy Warhol in this period, and like him was unconcerned with applying his creative instincts to advertising and other commercial media. Révérence du Groseillier is signed "GDali," which is how Dalí began to sign his works in the early 1930s in honor of his beloved muse, agent and wife, Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, whom he nicknamed 'Gala.' The choice of the joint signature demonstrates his obsession with his lover and his belief that "it is mostly with your blood, Gala, that I paint my pictures."The present work was part of a series of fourteen works commissioned by German publisher Jean Schneider from Dalí in 1969-70 for her personal collection, and the works remained as a complete set in private hands until 2013.