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Description

A block signed framed color wood engraving by Salvador Dali entitled, "Envy." This piece is from Dali's Divine Comedy Series and is also referred to as "Purgatory 15, 'The blessed angel, whom we had reached by now, with a glad voice said, 'Here's the entrance; nor is this stair half as steep as the other two." Printed on Rives paper after a watercolor. Blindstamp of the editor, J. Estrade. Published by Les Editions d'Art Les Heures Claires, Paris.

The 101 wood engravings for the Divine Comedy Series were executed between 1951 and 1964. From 1951 to 1960, Dali painted the 101 watercolors, which would later be used as studies for the series of wood engravings. From 1960 to 1964, Raymond Jacquet created the 3,000 wood blocks that were necessary for the completion of the Divine Comedy Series with the participation and final approval of Dali for each of the 101 engravings.

Salvador Dali was born in May 11, 1904 in the small agricultural town of Figueres, Spain. Dalí became a leader of the surrealist movement. His painting, The Persistence of Memory, with the soft or melting watches is still considered one of the best-known surrealist works. As the war approached, the apolitical Dalí clashed with the surrealists and was "expelled" from the surrealist group during a "trial" in 1934. He did however, exhibit works in international surrealist exhibitions throughout the decade but by 1940, Dalí was moving into a new style that eventually became known as his "classic" period, demonstrating a preoccupation with science and religion. As an artist, Salvador Dalí was not limited to a particular style or media. The body of his work, from early impressionist paintings through his transitional surrealist works, and into his classical period, reveals a constantly growing and evolving artist. Dalí worked in all media, leaving behind a wealth of oils, watercolors, drawings, graphics, and sculptures, jewels and objects of all descriptions. In 1974, Dalí opened the Teatro Museo in Figueres, Spain. This was followed by retrospectives in Paris and London at the end of the decade. After the death of his wife, Gala, in 1982, Dalí's health began to fail. It deteriorated further after he was burned in a fire in his home in Pubol in 1984. Two years later, a pace-maker was implanted. Much of this part of his life was spent in seclusion, first in Pubol and later in his apartments at Torre Galatea, adjacent to the Teatro Museo. Salvador Dalí died on January 23, 1989 in Figueres from heart failure with respiratory complications.