Retrato (Portrait)

At the same time as Salvador Dalí was working on the paintings inspired by his sister Anna Maria in Figueras and Cadaqués, in his room at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid, he was painting the Cubist compositions influenced by Juan Gris and the Italian Valori Plastici group that so impressed the other residents, such as Pepín Bello and Federico García Lorca.
In a 1949 publication, Anna Maria Dalí, represented once more in this 1925 Portrait from the Museo Reina Sofía collection, looked back on the long modelling sessions she did for the artist: “The portraits that my brother painted of me during this period are innumerable. Many were simple studies of hair and a bare shoulder. He painted patiently and tirelessly, and I never got tired of posing for him because I’ve never been bored by staying still in silence. […] In all the hours that I posed for him, I never tired of looking at the landscape which from then on and forever was a part of me. Indeed Salvador always painted me near a window! And my eyes had time to linger on the tiniest details.”

Paloma Esteban Leal