.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Nicolas and Olivier Descharnes have confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Les trois graces, created in 1974, harks back to the well-known mythological motif present in Botticelli’s Printemps, depicting the three virtues embodied in the daughters of Zeus: Aglaea (elegance), Euphrosyne (mirth), Thalia (youth and beauty). Renowned for his extraordinary draughtsmanship, Dalí frequently referred to renaissance subjects in his surrealist works, not only for their aesthetic brilliance but as a means to access the psychological elements of allegory. This motif can be found in during the height of his surrealist period in the 1930s, with the oil painting Enchanted beach with three fluid graces from circa 1938, held in The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida and in an edition of reliefs created of the same subject in 1977.
The present work aligns more closely with Antonio Canova’s depiction of the subject in marble, The Three Graces, in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Dalí refers to Canova in a more academic depiction of the subject in oil on copper which remained unfinished at the time of his death, Untitled, After "The Three Graces" by Canova (unfinished) (Fundació Gala-collection, cat. no. 914). In the present work, the nude graces are depicted in classical poses referencing the marble - elegant and classically beautiful - the trees in the background possibly referring to the springtime of Botticelli’s version. The landscape is vast and desolate however, thus evoking a surreal juxtaposition reminiscent of his earlier masterpiece.
Les trois graces, created in 1974, harks back to the well-known mythological motif present in Botticelli’s Printemps, depicting the three virtues embodied in the daughters of Zeus: Aglaea (elegance), Euphrosyne (mirth), Thalia (youth and beauty). Renowned for his extraordinary draughtsmanship, Dalí frequently referred to renaissance subjects in his surrealist works, not only for their aesthetic brilliance but as a means to access the psychological elements of allegory. This motif can be found in during the height of his surrealist period in the 1930s, with the oil painting Enchanted beach with three fluid graces from circa 1938, held in The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida and in an edition of reliefs created of the same subject in 1977.
The present work aligns more closely with Antonio Canova’s depiction of the subject in marble, The Three Graces, in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Dalí refers to Canova in a more academic depiction of the subject in oil on copper which remained unfinished at the time of his death, Untitled, After "The Three Graces" by Canova (unfinished) (Fundació Gala-collection, cat. no. 914). In the present work, the nude graces are depicted in classical poses referencing the marble - elegant and classically beautiful - the trees in the background possibly referring to the springtime of Botticelli’s version. The landscape is vast and desolate however, thus evoking a surreal juxtaposition reminiscent of his earlier masterpiece.