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Lot Essay
This collage is recorded in the archives of Robert Descharnes, Paris.
During his American sojourn from 1941 to 1948, Dalí immersed himself in every aspect of contemporary aesthetic life. He designed fabric, dresses and hats for Elsa Schiaparelli, a ballet (with costumes by Coco Chanel) for the Monte Carlo Ballet, and an opera, Tristan Insane, to music by Wagner. He also accepted a request from New York department store Bonwit-Teller to dress one of its windows, and in 1946 began work with Alfred Hitchcock for the now legendary dream sequence for Spellbound. Among the advertising commissions which Dalí accepted were a series of advertisements for Bryans Hosiery, which ran in American Vogue and Harper's Bazaar during the 1940s. The editors at Vogue were especially enamored of the artist, and not only illustrated his paintings and drawings on their covers and in editorials, but also featured photographs of the Dalí and his wife Gala.
All of the Bryans watercolors possess Dalí's characteristically witty Surrealist imagery and technical prowess. In these "ads" the commercial subject matter appears almost as an afterthought. Each image presents a wholy realized composition which happens to include, among its other inhabitants, a disembodied leg or a diaphanous, fetishistic stocking. Here, the stockinged leg is heralded in a spirited, worshipful celebration, with adoring mannequins waving butterfly wands leading the procession.
During his American sojourn from 1941 to 1948, Dalí immersed himself in every aspect of contemporary aesthetic life. He designed fabric, dresses and hats for Elsa Schiaparelli, a ballet (with costumes by Coco Chanel) for the Monte Carlo Ballet, and an opera, Tristan Insane, to music by Wagner. He also accepted a request from New York department store Bonwit-Teller to dress one of its windows, and in 1946 began work with Alfred Hitchcock for the now legendary dream sequence for Spellbound. Among the advertising commissions which Dalí accepted were a series of advertisements for Bryans Hosiery, which ran in American Vogue and Harper's Bazaar during the 1940s. The editors at Vogue were especially enamored of the artist, and not only illustrated his paintings and drawings on their covers and in editorials, but also featured photographs of the Dalí and his wife Gala.
All of the Bryans watercolors possess Dalí's characteristically witty Surrealist imagery and technical prowess. In these "ads" the commercial subject matter appears almost as an afterthought. Each image presents a wholy realized composition which happens to include, among its other inhabitants, a disembodied leg or a diaphanous, fetishistic stocking. Here, the stockinged leg is heralded in a spirited, worshipful celebration, with adoring mannequins waving butterfly wands leading the procession.