IMAGE
IMAGE

Artwork Details

Title
Portrait of My Sister

Maker
Salvador Dalí
Date Made
1923
Place Made
Spain
Materials
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Image: 41 in x 29 3/4 in
Accession ID Number
1983.3
Credit Line
Collection of The Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, FL (USA); Gift of A. Reynolds & Eleanor Morse 1983.3
Location
ON VIEW
Copyright
In the USA ©Salvador Dalí Museum, Inc. St. Petersburg, FL 2022=3 / Worldwide rights ©Salvador Dalí. Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí (Artists Rights Society), 2023; Photo © Joseph Siciliano USA, 2016
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Supplemental material

Description

When this work was first exhibited in Spain, it brought the 19-year-old artist considerable fame and was recognized as being comparable to Picasso’s "Portrait of Gertrude Stein,"1906, or his equally great "Woman in White," 1923. Dalí completed the first version of "Portrait of My Sister" in 1923, and originally represented his sister, Anna Maria, seated in an armchair with her hands crossed in her lap; a small table with books on top occupied the lower right-hand corner. Approximately four years later, Dalí returned to this celebrated canvas and transformed it by adding the second upside-down figure, which radically contrasts with the first and makes the finished painting a double portrait. While there is no documentation that details why Dalí transformed this work so thoroughly, it is believed to be either a reflection of Picasso’s profound influence after their first meeting in 1926, or as a symbol of developing tension between the artist and his sister.

Exhibition History:
1965, New York, Gallery of Modern Art, “Salvador Dalí, 1910-1965”
1995, St. Petersburg, Salvador Dali Museum, “The Young Dali: Works from 1914-1930”
2006, Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, “Barcelona & Modernity: Picasso, Gaudi, Miro, Dalí (1868-1939)”
2007, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, “Barcelona & Modernity: Picasso, Gaudi, Miro, Dalí (1868-1939)”
2014, St. Petersburg, Salvador Dali Museum, "PicassoDalí Dalí/Picasso"
2015, Barcelona, Musee Picasso, "PicassoDalí Dalí/Picasso"

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