Live Auction 11793Impressionist & Modern Art Works on Paper
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
Lot 146 PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE SWISS COLLECTION

Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)

Clair de lune avec cygnes à Port Lligat

Closed23 June 2016

Price Realised

GBP 25,000

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Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
Clair de lune avec cygnes à Port Lligat
signed and dated 'Dalí 1950' (lower centre); with a later dedication by Gala Dalí to Fleur Cowles '"If you come see me Port Lligat, I putch candle crowns on heads of swans in my harbour, Port Lligat; this my finest Dalinian greeting for you!"' (lower sheet margin)
gouache, wash and pen and ink on paper
image: 3 1/2 x 6 1/2 in. (9 x 16.5 cm.)
sheet: 6 5/8 x 9 in. (17 x 23 cm.)
Executed in 1950

Fleur Cowles, a gift from the artist circa 1955; sale, Christie's, London, 7 February 2013, lot 269.
Private collection, Switzerland, acquired at the above sale, and thence by descent.

Specialist note

This work is sold with a photo-certificate from Robert & Nicolas Descharnes.

Fleur Cowles (1908 - 2009) began her career as a columnist for The World Telegram but is best remembered as a style icon, pioneering editor and socialite. In 1946 she married Gardner Cowles of the Cowles Publishing Empire and in 1950, she began creating her own magazine Flair, with contributions from her friends Lucian Freud and Salvador Dalí. This friendship later resulted in the publication of her biography of the artist, The Case of Salvador Dalí (Boston, 1959).