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Salvador Dali (Spanish/French, 1904-1989), "El Violin also referred to as the Violin d'Ingres", 1966, verdigris patinated and silver argente bronze, cast signature "Dali", marked "H.C", numbered "1/3", and dated along lower right edge, l. 20", w. 8-1/4", d. 3", now in a custom-made beveled wood, green velvet, and plexiglass presentation case, overall, h. 13-1/4", w. 24-1/4", d. 12-1/4". Provenance: Philips, London, June 29, 1987, lot 35. Illustrated: Dali in the Third Dimension: The Stratton Foundation Collection. New York: Umberto Allemandi & C., 2010, pp. 164-165. This rare sculpture is of a limited edition of three. As the H.C. mark indicates, the violin was not produced for public sale, but given instead to fellow artists, friends and collaborators. According to the Stratton Foundation, which oversee the world's largest collection of Dali sculpture, "El Violin" is the "physical materialisation of a nightmare, which Dali experienced. Music was coming from his subconscious, a violinist in a white evening dress with a very pale face and two flashing eyes. Then, as the vision disappeared, a monstrous being with a goat-like skull and two empty eye-sockets on top of a grotesque body shaped like a bestial violin emerged. Dali woke up the same morning...and began modelling". As this dream illustrates, Dali was fascinated by the macabre, by the unconscious manifestation of fear and desire, and sound was often regarded by the Surrealists as a gateway to unlocking it. Skulls and violins are a recurrent symbol in Dali's work. In 1934, he painted the "Masochistic Instrument", in which the nude torso of a woman dangles a "soft"/melting violin outside a building window near a phallic-shaped tree. And in "Voluptas Mors (Voluptuous or Desirable Death)", Dali collaborat ed with photographer Philippe Halsman in 1951 to create a trompe-l'oeil double-image photograph of a skull made of seven naked women. This bronze violin, as its pseudo name implies, was also greatly influenced by Man Ray's famous 1924 photograph of the model Kiki of Montparnasse as an odalisque; shot from behind with the f-holes of a string instrument painted on her flanks, her torso resembles a violin. Myth has it that the French Neoclassical artist Auguste Dominique Ingres, famed for his depictions of the odalisque (reclining nude concubine), preferred to play his violin for his visitors, even though he played poorly, rather than show them his masterpieces. The expression "Violon d'Ingres" came into parlance for a pastime for which one is neither known nor talented. Man Ray's violin is both an homage to Ingres and a pun for a man's inability to "play a woman well." This motif is beautifully captured, yet again, in the extraordinary violin offered here.


  • Condition: Overall very good condition.

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October 16, 2015 1:00 PM CDT
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