Salvador Dalí

SALVADOR DALÍ I DOMÈNECH (Figueres, Girona, 1904 - 1989).
"Christ of Saint John of the Cross".
Gold plated silver pendant, specimen AB-03.
Signed and numbered on the clasp.
Certificate of authenticity enclosed.
Measurements: 5,5 x 4 cm.

This jewel-pendant in silver plated in yellow gold represents the "Christ of St. John of the Cross", conserved in the Kelvingrove Museum, in Glasgow, United Kingdom. Painted in 1951, it is one of Dalí's most emblematic paintings. For the position of Christ, the painter was inspired by a drawing made by St. John of the Cross (in which he recorded a vision). The piece was cast from a model directly modeled in wax by Dalí, demonstrating his mastery in the field of sculpture.

During his early years, Dalí discovered contemporary painting during a family visit to Cadaqués, where he met the family of Ramon Pichot, an artist who regularly traveled to Paris. Following Pichot's advice, Dalí began to study painting with Juan Núñez. In 1922, Dalí stayed at the famous Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid to begin studying Fine Arts at the San Fernando Academy. However, before his final exams in 1926, he was expelled for claiming that there was no one there fit to examine him. That same year Dalí traveled to Paris for the first time. There he met Picasso, and established some formal characteristics that would become distinctive of all his work from then on. During this period, Dalí held regular exhibitions in both Barcelona and Paris, and joined the surrealist group based in the Parisian neighborhood of Montparnasse. The painter landed in America in 1934, thanks to art dealer Julian Levy. As a result of his first individual exhibition in New York, his international projection was definitively consolidated, and since then he has been showing his work and giving lectures all over the world. Most of his production is gathered in the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueras, followed by the collection of the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg (Florida), the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Salvador Dalí Gallery in Pacific Palisades (California), the Espace Dalí in Montmartre (Paris) or the Dalí Universe in London.