SALVADOR DALÍ
(Figueres, May 11th 1904– Figueres, January 23th 1989)
Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí I Domenech was born in 1904 on the morning of May 11th in the small farming village of Figueres in Spain.
His parents bestowed upon him the name of his older brother, Salvador, who had tragically passed away shortly before Dalí’s birth. Salvador Dalí passed much of his childhood in Figueres and at his family’s summer home in the coastal village of Cadaqués, where his parents built his first studio. From an early age Dalí was encourage to develop his artistic talents, which led to him eventually leaving to study in Madrid at the prestigious San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1920 Dalí travelled to Paris where he met with such artistic contemporaries as Pablo Picasso, Rene Magritte and Joao Miró; this contact led to his first Surrealist Period. The painting for which he is best known is undoubtably the “The Persistence of Memory” an oil painting on canvas measuring just 24cm x 33cm depicting soft clocks draped over olive trees a landscape clearly inspired by his native Catalonian countryside. As an adult Dalí and took up residence with his wife Gala near Port Lligat. Many of his paintings are inspired by and embody his love for this part of Spain.
Dalí died in Figueres in 1989.
