Figueres, 26 October 2009
The Foundation has presented a work painted on both sides titled Nymphs and Young Ladies in a Garden Fountain from circa 1921 and a portrait of his sister Anna Maria on the other side: Figure from Behind, painted in 1925.
The painting is exhibited at the Fishmongers Room, in the Dalí Theatre-Museum of Figueres, in an installation specially designed to show both sides of the work.
The first side to be painted is a very lyrical playful scene that can be inscribed in the festive theme of other works created during 1921. It transports us into the surroundings, of idyllic echoes, where nymphs take a bath in a large fountain, with rows of trees to the side. The painter captures the moment of the bathing ritual. Dalí shapes his search for decadent symbolism. The feminine figures evoke a classical Arcadia and give off sensuality, refinement and their exquisite forms, combined with a rich chromatic delicacy.
We may not forget the influence of Ismael Smith, Marià Andreu or Néstor Martín-Fernández de la Torre, all of them friends of Salvador Dalí.
It is not the first time Dalí uses a cardboard on both sides and it is not the first time he uses his sister Anna Maria as a central theme. The first portraits of her were dated in 1923. This particular one is from 1925 and may be a preliminary study for the one held in Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, in Madrid.
