Portrait of My Father (Dalí)

Portrait of my father

Artist	Salvador Dalí
Year	1925
Type	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	104,5 cm × 104,5 cm (411 in × 411 in)
Location	Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

Portrait of my father is a painting by Salvador Dalí currently exhibited at the National Art Museum of Catalonia (MNAC).

History

Dalí held his first exhibition at the Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona in 1925, before making his first trip to Paris and turning towards Surrealism. One of the most outstanding paintings in the exhibition, considered one of the best from his early period, is this portrait of his father. Dalí concentrated on the severe expression of the face and, especially in the piercing eyes, on the forceful character of his father, a notary in Figueres, with whom he had a difficult relationship. The technical mastery the young painter had achieved at that time can be seen in the cleanly drawn outlines, the treatment of light and shade and the expressive power of the sombre tone.^[1]

Exhibits

• 1925, Barcelona, Galeries Dalmau ^[2]
• 1962, Madrid, Casón del Buen Retiro ^[3]
• 1964, Tokyo, Tokyo Prince Hotel Gallery ^[4]
• 1979, Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne^[5]
• 1983, Madrid, Museo Español de Arte Contemporáneo^[6]
• 1985, London, Hayward Gallery ^[7]
• 1986, Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage ^[8]
• 1987, Kobe, The Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art ^[9]
• 1987, Barcelona, Palau de la Virreina^[10]
• 1989, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie ^[11]
• 1989, Humlebaek, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art^[12]
• 1994, London, Hayward Gallery ^[13]
• 1998, Liverpool, Tate Gallery Liverpool ^[14]
• 2004, Venezia, Palazzo Grassi^[15]
• 2007, London, Tate Modern^[16]
• 2007, Madrid, Museo Thyssen Bornemisza - Fundación Caja Madrid^[17]

References

1. Artwork commented at museum's website
2. Exposició S. Dalí, núm. cat. 5, il.
3. Exposición de pintura catalana : desde la prehistoria hasta nuestros días, núm. cat. 187, il.
4. Salvador Dalí : exhibition - Japan 1964, núm. cat. 11
5. Salvador Dalí: rétrospective, 1920-1980, núm. cat. 18
6. 400 obras de Salvador Dalí del 1914 al 1983, núm. cat. 96
7. Homage to Barcelona : the city and its arts, 1888-1936, núm. cat. 58
8. Trésors de Barcelone, núm. cat. 46
9. Homage to Catalonia - Barcelona art city, núm. cat. 116
10. Homenatge a Barcelona : la ciutat i les seves arts, 1888 -1936, núm. cat. 218
11. Salvador Dalí, 1904-1989, núm. cat. 41
12. Salvador Dalí, núm. cat. 5
13. Salvador Dalí: the early years, núm. cat. 65
14. Salvador Dalí: a mythology, núm. cat. 1
15. Dalí, núm. cat. 34
16. Dalí & Film, Fig. 66
17. El Espejo y la máscara : el retrato en el siglo de Picasso, núm. cat. 76