Artbidy Auction House is proud to present a monographic auction of Salvador Dalí's works, mainly centred around his woodcuts for one of the most outstanding works of world literature, Dante's Divine Comedy.
The Divine Comedy is considered the most important achievement of Italian literature, hence the Italian government's choice in 1950 to have the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí illustrate the work was highly controversial. The discussion surrounding the choice of Dalí was so heated that the Italian parliament eventually backed out of the idea.
Undeterred by the rejection, however, Dalí, with the help of French publisher Joseph Forêt, decided to complete the project himself and between 1951 and 1960 created 100 watercolours depicting scenes from Inferno, Purgatory and Heaven for Dante's text.
Based on these watercolours, under Dali's watchful eye, woodcuts consisting of 3,500 separate blocks were created, which took less than five years to complete. The limited French publication Les Heures Claires numbers 4765 copies. The work you present here is widely regarded as Dali's finest graphic achievement.
We warmly invite you to have a look through the catalogue and to place your orders.
If you have any questions, our specialists are at your disposal:
Agata Nahajowska
+48 720 898 950
a.nahajowska@artbidy.com
Judyta Majkowska
+48 537 944 851
j.majkowska@artbidy.com
