Cat. no. P 1190
Portrait of Jonathan and Ann Green
Description
- Date:
- 1963
- Technique:
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions:
- 66.3 x 95.4 cm
- Signature:
- Signed and dated lower right corner: Salvador Dali / 1963
- Location:
- Private collection
Provenance
- Mr. Montgomery M. Green & Mrs. Ann W. Green, Havre de Grace, Maryland
- The Estate of Ann W. Green, Havre de Grace, Maryland
- Auctioned in Sotheby's, New York, November 6th, 2015
Observations
This work is a portrait of Jonathan and Ann Green commissioned by Montgomery M. Green, a farmer and patron of the arts. In the letters he sent to the artist, he clearly exposes how painting should be: "This portrait might contain an allegorical message contrasting what is good and worthwhile in our American and Western bourgeois Christian world against the evil forces that now confront the whole Christendom. There are, of course, numerous ways that this challenge can be symbolized. For instance, I should think that the lighting of the picture might show beams of sunshine on the Western Christian side with dark thunder clouds overhanging the Eastern atheistic side. […] My suggestion that having Jonathan, the boy, depicted holding a space helmet under his arm occurred to me because he was born at the very dawn of the space age and is facing life in that age. You expressed disapproval of this concept, but I was not entirely clear as to what your objection was. Certainly I am not insisting on this anymore than on any of the suggestions that I have made, but I am setting the matter down here in order to explain to you what prompted the thought." (Letter from Montgomery M. Green to Salvador Dalí, April 20, 1962).
Bibliography
- katherine Brooks, "The Story Behind One of Salvador Dali's Strangest Portraits", The Huntington Post, 05/11/2015, s. l., n. p.
Reproduction Rights
The copyright on Salvador Dalí's works, included those that are reproduced in this Web page, is held by the Spanish State and has been granted in exclusivity to the Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí.
Pursuant to intellectual property laws in force, the total or partial reproduction, distribution, transformation, public communication, interactively making available to the public, as well as any other exploitation, by any means, of the works included in this Web page is prohibited.
Any exploitation of Salvador Dalí's works is subject to the prior application and clearance of the relevant licence issued by VEGAP (tel. 91 532 66 32 and 93 201 03 31 ; www.vegap.es). Copyright infringement will be prosecuted according to Laws.
