One of my favorite things about living with my late mother-in-law (which my wife and I did about 15 years ago) was admiring the two Salvador Dali prints she had. As longtime readers might recall, she passed on nearly a year ago and as we began to clean out her things, the Dalis were nowhere to be found. It was presumed that she sold them as she sunk deeper into illness in recent years. Then, this weekend, as I was digging through the back of a downstairs closet trying to finish the long drawn out cleaning process for a pending sale I found a large sealed box and in the box...the Dalis!
The pictures seen here are from the Net, not scans (they're too big for my scanner)but this is them! EL CID is from a 1968 unlimited series of etchings. Although signed only in etching it is a fascinating piece--part of a selection of 4 heroes by Dali--and
I used to admire it for long minutes at a time.
I used to admire it for long minutes at a time.The second is my favorite though. PARIS AND HELEN OF TROY, done in multiple colors and highlighting several of the artist's surrealistic trademarks, is signed and numbered. Number 237 out of only 1000 prints made. Although signed in pencil in the lower right hand corner, it's interesting to note that in latter days, Dali apparently decided it would be quite surreal to have someone other than Dali himself sign his prints! Thus there may be no way to tell if this was actually signed by him even though it IS an official print!!!
His Last Supper is my favorite :)
ReplyDeleteIt is possible to have the Paris and Helen of Troy print authenticated. One of the things that would help is to look at the paper for a watermark. You can often see this is you hold the paper up to a light and look at it from behind. It wasn't uncommon for Dali prints to be printed on different types of paper--so there may be 1000 on one paper and another 1000 on another paper, etc. Although, that may not be the case with this particular graphic. Unfortunately, I don't have my copy of the Official Guide to the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali by Albert Fields with me--I'm on the road. It could help you authenticate it by giving measurements for the paper size, image size, and the watermark that should appear in the paper, as well as the numbering scheme used. It is quite possible that you have a genuine graphic. If you can't find someone with a Field's Guide, try to locate someone with a Catalogue Raisonne' of Dali's graphics and mixed media works by Lopsinger (published by Prestel). That should have similar details that will help you determine if it's a fake or not.
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