Quote:

Roger and Myrna,

I especially remember Woman at a Window, a jewel of a painting by Caspar David Friedrich that really blew my head when I presented it in this forum. It was painted in 1822.

Caspar David Friedrich - Woman at a Window (1822, oil on canvas)

I consider it very likely that Dali was inspired in this work to paint, a little over a century later, his Person at the Window of 1925.

Salvador Dali - Person at the Window (1925, oil on canvas)

Other artists have painted similar themes but with the woman rather sitting and knitting or peeling potatos or playing the lute (Vermeer), but that I know only the two by C.D. Friedrich and Dali are standing and looking out the window with their backs to the viewer.

In my view, this latter characteristic is what gives both paintings their particular evocative feeling.

Without going out of your door
You can know all things on earth
Without looking out of your window
You can know the ways of heaven

The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows

Remember the song? But the lyrics are from Lao Tse's Tao Te Ching, the bible of Taoism.

Miguel

Salvador Dali - Portrait of My First Cousin (oil on canvas, 1923)

Quote:

Roger and Myrna,

I especially remember Woman at a Window, a jewel of a painting by Caspar David Friedrich that really blew my head when I presented it in this forum. It was painted in 1822.

Caspar David Friedrich - Woman at a Window (1822, oil on canvas)

I consider it very likely that Dali was inspired in this work to paint, a little over a century later, his Person at the Window of 1925.

Salvador Dali - Person at the Window (1925, oil on canvas)

Other artists have painted similar themes but with the woman rather sitting and knitting or peeling potatos or playing the lute (Vermeer), but that I know only the two by C.D. Friedrich and Dali are standing and looking out the window with their backs to the viewer.

In my view, this latter characteristic is what gives both paintings their particular evocative feeling.

Without going out of your door
You can know all things on earth
Without looking out of your window
You can know the ways of heaven

The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows

Remember the song? But the lyrics are from Lao Tse's Tao Te Ching, the bible of Taoism.

Miguel

Quote:
Friends,

But, what to say of this painting below that doesn't even look like a Dali (but is a Dali) with its symmetrical figures of women and its absolutely tranquil atmosphere? It was painted almost ten years later but it seems to be a hundred years older and sort of light-years apart in style - which is no demerit of course.

"Dawn, Noon, Sunset and Twilight" (oil on wood, 1979)

I am showing these two master works together just to emphasize how difficult it is to try and give interpretations when dealing with a genius.

Miguel

After a little research I discovered the following.

A reproduction of The Angelus (1857-59) By Jean-Francoise Millet hung on the wall of the school which Dali attended at the end of eight and proved to be an endless source of inspiration to him throughout his life.

Interesting?

I thought so. Another little discovery too, coming here.

Roger

Quote:

Quote:
Friends,

It was painted almost ten years later but it seems to be a hundred years older and sort of light-years apart in style - which is no demerit of course.

"Dawn, Noon, Sunset and Twilight" (oil on wood, 1979)

Miguel

After a little research I discovered the following.

I also discovered that Dali experimented with pointillism in 1922-3 after study of Seurat's pioneering experiments.

Dali produced this in 1923 and called it

Bathers of La Costa Brava Bathers of Llaner

He was reported as being obsessed with the hedonist bathers on the Figueras beaches.

STUDY OF A NUDE - Salvador Dali

NUDE IN A LANDSCAPE - Salvador Dali 1922-23