Details
SALVADOR DALÍ (1904-1989)
Fantaisie érotique orientale pour le projet d'illustration de l'ouvrage Les Mille et Une Nuits
signed and dated 'Dalí 1966' (upper centre); signed again 'Dalí' (lower centre)
gouache, watercolour and felt-tip pen on paper
1518 x 1118 in. (39 x 29 cm.)
Executed in 1966
Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist, and thence by descent to the present owner.
Literature
S. Dalí, M. Castells, M. Forcano & R. Mas Peinado, Les mil i una nits, Barcelona, 2014, p. 105 (illustrated).
Exhibited
Turin, Palazzo Bricherasio, Salvador Dalí: La vita è sogno, November 1996 - March 1997, no. 83, p. 119 (illustrated).
Bruges, Stichting Sint-Jan, Salvador Dalí: Doeken & Aquarellen, July - November 1997, no. 48, p. 125 (illustrated).
Augsburg, Römisches Museum, Dalí, Mara e Beppe: Bilder einer Freundschaft, September - November 2000, p. 79 (illustrated).
Special notice
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.
Brought to you by
Annie Wallington
A Christie's specialist may contact you to discuss this lot or to notify you if the condition changes prior to the sale.

Lot Essay

Nicolas and Olivier Descharnes have confirmed the authenticity of this work.

Throughout his career, Dalí executed illustrations for many editions of classical literature, including Don Quixotte, The Divine Comedy and Macbeth. Salvador Dalí’s One Thousand and One Nights, however, commissioned from the artist by the family of the present owner in the 1960s, remained unpublished until 2014. Thus this group of works offers new and exceptional insight into Dalí’s original and unique relationship with classical and literary tradition, and his constant search for an avant-garde re-interpretation of myths and iconographies.

Extremely varied in its graphic style and entrancing with its dramatic imagery, Dalí’s series of illustrations for One Thousand and One Nights shows the artist’s interpretation of central figures and events in a complex and evolving narrative that may date back in its origins to the 9th Century. The stories of Scheherazade as retold in One Thousand and One Nights include some of the most recognisable images of Arabic, Persian, Mesopotamian, Indian, and Egyptian folklore. For many hundreds of years these stories and their characters were central to a European understanding and imagining of Arabian and Persian history and visual culture.

Post Lot Text
Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot. You must pay us an extra amount equal to the resale royalty and we will pay the royalty to the appropriate authority. Please see the Conditions of Sale for further information.

Related Articles

Sorry, we are unable to display this content. Please check your connection.

More from
Modern Edition: Works on Paper and Prints