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A Chemist Lifting with Extreme Precaution the Cuticle of a Grand Piano

In a stark desert landscape, an older man sits in the foreground, illuminated, with a newspaper. Arranged evenly across the land behind him, smaller than perspective would indicate, are a faded child holding a hula hoop, a man holding a melting piano, a standing woman, and a figure near the horizon.
© Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2018

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  • In a stark desert landscape, an older man sits in the foreground, illuminated, with a newspaper. Arranged evenly across the land behind him, smaller than perspective would indicate, are a faded child holding a hula hoop, a man holding a melting piano, a standing woman, and a figure near the horizon.

Date:

1936

Artist:

Salvador Dalí
Spanish, 1904–1989

About this artwork

When this painting was first shown in Chicago in 1937, Salvador Dalí told a reporter that he intended to induce a feeling of malaise in the viewer. He expanded, “It is impossible to ask for an explanation. I try to get the nearest to a certain thing as seen in a dream.” The figures shown here often have multiple readings or identities: his hometown pharmacist or “chemist”; the German composer Richard Wagner; and a composite man blending aspects of Swiss folk hero William Tell, former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin, and Dalí’s own father. Close examination of this work, aided by infrared imaging, reveals the presence of yet another figure – a ghostly portrait of Wagner’s patron, 19th-century King Ludwig II of Bavaria – nearly visible beneath the work’s surface.

Status

On View, Gallery 395

Department

Modern Art

Artist

Salvador Dalí

Title

A Chemist Lifting with Extreme Precaution the Cuticle of a Grand Piano

Place

Spain (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1936

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

Signed and dated, l.r.: "Gala Salvador Dali 1936"

Dimensions

48.3 × 64.1 cm (19 × 25 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph R. Shapiro

Reference Number

1996.390

Copyright

© Salvador Dalí, Fundació Gala-Salvador Dalí / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, 2018

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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