Dali painting sold at auction for $ 2.6 million

“A sewing machine with an umbrella in a surreal landscape” (Máquina de coser con paraguas en un paisaje surrealista) - a small picture painted Salvador Dali in 1941, during a visit to the United States for director Fritz Lang, it was sold yesterday at an auction in Paris for two million euros (2.6 million dollars), the organizers said. The total cost of the painting coincided with the opinion of experts at the Artcurial auction house, who rated the work measuring just 22.5 x 30.5 cm in 1.6 - 2 million euros.

Salvador Dali - Máquina de coser con paraguas en un paisaje surrealista

“A sewing machine with an umbrella in a surreal landscape” was supposed to appear in one of the scenes in the film “Moontide” (1942), the filming of which was begun by Fritz Lang with starring Jean Gabin. However, due to disagreements with the management of the 20 Century Fox film company, work on the tape was transferred to the director Archie Mayo, who ultimately did not use the picture of the genius of surrealism. This was Dali’s first attempt to collaborate with the world of cinema. The artist’s debut in cinema took place a little later, in 1945, in the film Alfred Hitchcock “Spellbound”. Here Dali created visual effects for a 2-minute dream scene, which, according to his idea, should have been much more complicated than the one that ended up in the film, but to release all the nuances conceived by the founder of surrealism, from the technical point of view, at that time it was impossible.

Dali’s work did not become the most expensive "surreal" lot in this auction. An unnamed canvas by Yves Tangu (Yves Tangu), written by him in 1933 and until yesterday, has never been exhibited before, was sold for 2.11 million euros with an estimate of 700,000 - 1 million euros. This result was a record for Tanga’s paintings.

The work of Yves Tanguy was a real discovery for connoisseurs of painting. All this time the picture was in a private collection. According to one of the experts of the auction house, “the picture is striking in the accuracy of transcription of the inner world, the amazing technique of performance and the general musicality of the image.”

Anna Sidorova