Salvador Dali and Gala - a story of unusual love. Gala Dali: from a Russian girl to a demonic muse of genius Gleb Vasiliev biography of Elena Dyakonova

I love her more than my own mother and father. I love more than Picasso and even money.

Dreams played a huge role in the life and work of Dali. He often told his friends about a mysterious Russian woman who comes to him in his dreams and gives him ideas for surrealistic paintings. Suddenly, a real femme fatale from dreams comes to visit him, pierces with an electric look and stays there forever to give love, pleasure and inspiration for creativity.

After several awkward months, when Gala was torn between her lawful husband and an eccentric lover, the insane passion for the second won. Eluard admitted defeat, let his wife go to another man, content with a farewell gift from the Spanish surrealist who painted his portrait. Salvador Dali and Gala went on a long family trip. The artist and his muse were legally married in 1932, adding to it church rite in 1958, when love had already lost its former passion and an elderly friend (ten years apart) needed not love, but a quiet pension provided with an official title.

When they say that behind the back of any great man there is a strong and intelligent woman, then the creative and domestic relations of Salvador Dali and Gala could serve as an excellent proof of the thesis. The extravagant master was well known at home in Spain, as well as in neighboring France, but his star shone all over the world when his girlfriend, muse, companion and model for all female images was nearby.

Local historian Renat Bikbulatov categorically claims that Gala Dali (Elena Dyakonova) “invented” her Kazan origin

35 years ago, a woman passed away, who was one of the first to see the remarkable talent of a young Catalan and with the help of whom the artist not only gained world fame, but also became the highest paid painter of the twentieth century. According to Gala-Elena, her birthplace was Russia, the city of Kazan. This fact was considered to be kind of well-known, until a local historian became interested in it. The correspondent of "BUSINESS Online" met with Renat Bikbulatov.

Gala and Salvador Dali

"I WAS BORN IN THE TATAR CAPITAL, ON THE BANK OF THE VOLGA"

- Renat Khairullovich, why did the engineer of the computer plant suddenly become interested in such a far from computer topic as the fate of the wife of Salvador Dali?

- It's simple: in 1993, the plant where I worked ceased to exist, and I retired. I had to do something. Since I was a lover of books (I have about 10 thousand volumes), Kazan, its history, I began to write articles for local magazines and newspapers. Around 1998, I saw this book - "Gala". She interested me, because there were rumors that Gala was born in Kazan. And they even indicated the house where she was born. I published some excerpts from this book in the newspaper where Rafael Mustafin worked as deputy editor, you probably heard about him ( Rafael Akhmetovich Mustafin(1931-2011) - writer, literary critic, literary critic, publicist, editor, laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Tatarstan named after Gabdulla Tukay (2006), laureate of the Komsomol Prize of the Tatar ASSR named after Musa Jalil (1976) — approx. ed.) And I studied with him at Kazan University. He also joined the search. There was little information about the Kazan life of Gala, and we decided to fill this gap.

Indeed, what do we know about the Kazan period of the wife famous artist, about her origin, family, childhood? In the book “Kazan Retro Lexicon”, Kazan local historian Maxim Glukhov writes: “Elena Dyakonova (1894–1982) was born in Kazan. She graduated from the Ksenin gymnasium and the Higher Women's Courses (1912). In 1916, she married the French poet Paul Grendel (later world-famous as Paul Eluard) and lived with him for about 15 years, forever remaining "sister, girlfriend, lover and secret" for the poet. After that, she became close and in 1934 she married an outstanding Spanish painter.

I learned a more detailed story about her childhood years in Kazan and Moscow from the book of the French writer Dominique Bon, published in Russia in Russian translation in 1997: “Dyakonova was born in Kazan, the Tatar capital, on the banks of the Volga. In Rus' and throughout the East, women from Kazan have a legendary reputation: the sultans recruited them into their troops, as they believed that they had no equal in voluptuousness. She was born in 1894, on August 26, under the sign of Virgo.

Renat Bikbulatov

"SHOULD BE CALLED UGLY"

“She has a Slavic appearance: wide cheekbones, a large chin, a huge forehead, a defined mouth, a matte complexion; not a beauty, but not even pretty. There is some severity in the oval of the face and in the whole appearance, there is not enough grace. If not for thick, black, curled hair, if not for long Strong arms with rounded nails, if not for a slender figure, she could be called ugly. Thin, with protruding neck and shoulder bones, but fairly well built. Her body has harmonious proportions, she has beautiful legs with thin ankles. But the first impression is not in her favor. At first glance, there is nothing attractive about her, and her arrogant air keeps people at a distance.

She is of medium height, but carries her head so straight and carries her head so proudly that she appears tall. Her appearance attracts attention. But what ultimately sets her apart from the crowd (not just youth and pride) is her look. She has black eyes, feverish and black, shiny and dark at the same time. Like pitch - full compliance with the comparison.

“Great, but just a description. And what about the concrete facts - did the Frenchman help you in your research?

- Yes, Bon's book has become a desktop; became, as they say, a good starting point for the search. We read further:

“What is known about her? There is very little information about her recent past. Mother's name is Antonina, maiden name mother - Deulina ...The clan of Antonina Deulina comes from Siberia, where the family had gold mines. But the girl only once visited her grandmother in Tobolsk with her brothers and sister. An uncle, mother's brother, also lived in Siberia, Elena hardly knows him ...

The girl has two older brothers, Vadim and Nikolai, and a sister, Lydia, who is eight years younger than her. The eldest, Vadim, has the same black hair and dark eyes as Elena. Lydia and Nikolai are light blond and have blue-green eyes inherited from their father. Their father is Ivan Dyakonov, or rather, he was. He died in 1905, when Elena was barely eleven years old. He was an official in the ministry Agriculture. Elena never talked about him."

— But after all, there didn’t seem to be a Ministry of Agriculture in the Kazan province at that time — it was the capital’s prerogative. In the provinces, departments practiced more ...

— Quite right. Therefore, a simple conclusion suggested itself: to question and verify all sources, regardless of the authorities of the authors. But for now, back to Bona:

“Elena did not like to talk about her childhood, she was stingy with revelations about her past. It is known that her mother had a diploma as a midwife, but she never worked in her specialty, but was engaged in creativity - she wrote fairy tales for children. It is known that Elena herself loves to read ... By the way she knows how to tame cats, one can guess that Elena is not indifferent to them. She has a black cat at home. Information, reluctantly communicated to those who like to ask questions, is insignificant and of little interest.

When meeting new people, Elena never said her true name, but used the name Gala, emphasizing the first syllable. The name is rare, apparently a diminutive of Galina. Gala - that's what her mother called her. And her real name, which her father gave her, remained only in official documents ...

Gala is unsociable, cold, stern, irritable, lonely ... so closed off that it suggests that she is hiding something? Does she have anything to keep quiet about? Origin secret? Painful memories? Or maybe she prefers to get rid of her past forever, so as not to revive, thinking about it incessantly, inevitable suffering. Elena says nothing about her past, about her biography. Any question about a previous life pisses her off."

Lena Dyakonova (or Gala, as her mother liked to call her)

“There are NO DOCUMENTS ABOUT RESIDING IN KAZAN OF THE DYAKONOVS!”

- Secrets are the real bread of the local historian. What happened after reading the mysterious French book?

— In "Kazan Stories" I once talked about my next steps. Namely: in order to lift the veil over the secret of the Kazan birth of Elena Dyakonova, to learn more about her life in Kazan until 1905, about her family, I turned to the State Republican National Archives, where for a year I looked through literally mountains of old documentation. The first results were literally shocking! In the metric books of the Kazan churches for 1894 there were no records of the birth of Elena Dyakonova, there were no similar records of her sister Lida, who was born in 1902. The documents of Kazan gymnasiums and schools do not say anything about the fact that her two older brothers studied in any of them from 1894 to 1905, and there is also no mention of Elena herself.

Further more. The house on Gruzinskaya Street (now Karl Marx Street, 55/29), where she was allegedly born in 1894 and where she lived with her family until 1905, it turns out, belonged to collegiate adviser Ivan Aleksandrovich Kotelov, known to all Kazan local historians. He lived here with his family, there were no other permanent residents there. By the way, this house is also known for the fact that after the arrest of his parents, the future famous writer Vasily Aksenov lived in it. And one more thing: in the address books of Kazan, not a word is said about the residence of Elena's father, Ivan Dyakonov, in our city!

By the way, in 2003, filmmakers from Spain came to Kazan, they were preparing a film for the 100th anniversary of Salvador Dali. So they did not find any documentary evidence in our National Archives about the date and place of birth of Elena Dyakonova!

So there is only one conclusion from the riddle that Elena Dyakonova asked us: she was not born in 1894 in Kazan, like her sister Lida in 1902. Her brothers Vadim and Nikolai did not study at Kazan gymnasiums, and Elena Dyakonova's family did not live in Kazan from 1894 to 1905.

House on Gruzinskaya Street (now Karl Marx Street, 55/29) in Kazan / Photo: "BUSINESS Online"

"SHE WILL NEVER LOVE THE GHETTO"

- Mentioning the house on Gruzinskaya Street, you said that the future Senora Dali, according to previous versions, allegedly lived in it with her family until 1905. Where did they go from there?

- As already mentioned, Ivan Dyakonov died in 1905, when Elena was not yet 11 years old. A widow with children moves to Moscow. And the fact that they lived there is already known quite reliably. There, Antonina Dyakonova marries a second time - to the lawyer Dimitri Ilyich Gomberg.

"Dimitri Ilyich Gomberg, - read by Dominique Bohn, - a Jew only by his father, which allows him to live in Moscow, in a city where Jews were forbidden to live until 1917. Although Antonina's children are Orthodox, confess once a year, regularly attend divine services and never part with icons, they live, however, under the same roof with a non-religious person who openly preaches new ideas of freedom, justice and progress. Dimitri Gomberg is a liberal bourgeois. The library in his house is not an ornament, but an integral part of existence. At home, he receives his friends, the same liberals as himself. Perhaps thanks to a Jewish stepfather, sensitive to the evolution of morals, highly intelligent and wealthy, Elena developed an early desire for independence. She will never love the ghetto.

The lawyer generously provides for his wife's family in abundance, because, in addition to the four children of Ivan Dyakonov, he also hosts two cousins ​​who came from a distant province to study in Moscow. Dimitri Ilyich Gomberg pays not only for his studies, but also for going to the theater, playing sports and, of course, the medical care necessary for his stepsons and stepdaughters. Especially for Elena, he pays for the cost of an expensive stay in a sanatorium (Elena, after graduating from a Moscow gymnasium in 1912, from January 1913 to April 1914, was treated for tuberculosis in a Swiss sanatorium).

Elena, according to her brothers and sister, is beyond doubt his favorite; and it is true. There are even rumors that Dimitri Gomberg - real father girls. A shadow of doubt falls on its origin. She herself, if she knew the answer to this riddle, would prefer the second father to the first. She adopted a line of conduct from which she never deviated: not to talk about it ...

Instead of adding her father's name to her own name, as is done according to Russian custom, Elena Dyakonova adds to it the name of her mother's second husband. Acting in her own way, she chooses the combination she likes: Elena Dimitrievna Dyakonova. This name testifies to the importance of a stepfather in the life of a young woman, who was able to replace the legal father to such an extent and was loved by her that she took his patronymic name for herself ...

In Moscow, the Dyakonov-Gomberg family lives at number 14 on Trubnikovskaya Street, on the sixth - last - floor of a new house, where she moved in in search of clean air: Elena's health from the very beginning early age- a constant cause for concern for Antonina and Dimitri. The physical condition prevented her from playing sports, but not studying. Elena, like Lydia later, entered a lyceum, more precisely, a private school for girls, a gymnasium for Bryukhonenko (this name made them laugh: in Russian, “belly” is a fat belly). Elena, despite poor health, was a brilliant student. In the semester report cards, she only has fours and fives - excellent grades, since the five are given for the highest academic achievements. She achieves special success in Russian literature. At home, Elena speaks French with a Swiss servant named Justine ... "

Anastasia Tsvetaeva, Nikolai Mironov and Marina Tsvetaeva

"NO, THE TSVETAEVS WERE REAL"

- Is friendship with the Tsvetaev sisters at the Bryukhonenko gymnasium also from the realm of rumors?

No, this time it's the real truth. Dominic Bona writes in his study about the first celebrity, also a future celebrity, with whom Gala-Elena is brought together by her amazing fate. Indeed, the writer has in mind a friend-classmate, whose name was Asya, Anastasia Tsvetaeva, the daughter of a university professor of history and the younger sister of an aspiring poetess, heartily beloved, unsurpassed Marina Tsvetaeva. Asya and Elena were inseparable. But it was Elena who always came to Asya, in beautiful house Tsvetaevs in Trekhprudny Lane; the atmosphere of wealth and intellectuality that reigned in him seemed to her in the highest degree exquisite. In the book "Memoirs" Anastasia Tsvetaeva tells about their strange friend:

“The description of the personality of Gali Dyakonova later by Paul Eluard and other people of art was devoted to more than one book, poems and articles. And maybe it's my duty to tell what Galya was like as a child. One of the most original characters I have met. The glance of her narrow, absorbing eyes, the movement of her strong-willed mouth—and she was sweeter, more needed than all those who looked at me with admiration. The themes were all common. Poems, people, beginning in a whirlwind of emerging taste are whims. In her, perhaps stronger than mine - a kind of repulsion; in the rise of an eyebrow, a short burst of laughter suddenly frightening all the ardor of shyness (in her brother Kolya, repeated by blood resemblance). She grabbed my hand, we rushed.

Gala's sense of humor was extraordinary: her laughter enveloped her like an element. Like me and Marina. Only Marina and I had in her a kind of doe-like timidity that was not inherent in her, in which there was an intellectual beginning, only outwardly expressed by an instant spasm of laughter, boiling up with one sound, almost crushing her; her eyebrows flew up, her whole narrow face flared up, and, looking around at someone, at something that struck her, frightened her away, she took off from her place: not to be here. So a certain part of her essence was - in running away, in slipping away from everything that she did not like. Without judging, without reasoning, she, perhaps not yet realizing, turned away. A girl in a sailor suit, carelessly thrown over her shoulders - let her live! - oblique, ending in a stubborn coil. To be busy with her thick, grooming? Try - over braids? be proud? Eyebrows raised, a short gasp of laughter.

It seemed to me that I always knew Galya. We sat - Marina, Galya and I - on Sunday, Saturday evening with our feet on Marina's sofa in her small (one room from mine) room and told each other everything that we wanted, thought, was. We took Galya around our childhood, gave her someone from the past, covering the hopelessness of such an undertaking with a sigh, and from secret longing easily collapsed into laughter, clinging to some awkward expression, verbal mistake, absorbing fragrant, viscous irises, beloved ones from a bag. all of us more than other candies.

“N-doesn’t come off!” Tongue stuck ... - suddenly, barely turning them, one of us said, and it became so funny that it hurt from laughter, because into this abyss, insatiable, like loneliness (correcting him!), We flew together three tied up like highlanders. "It doesn't melt..." the tongue continued its struggle with the iris. “N-doesn’t melt…” the consoling man could hardly pronounce. The paroxysm of laughter was like a terrible story by Edgar Allan Poe.

“Have you ever been like this, Galya?” - (I).

- And so it happened to you, Galochka? - (simultaneously with me Marina).

“Gala Dali was neither an artist nor an art critic. Nevertheless, she forever inscribed her name in the history of world painting" / Salvador Dali, "Portrait of Gala with two lamb ribs balancing on her shoulder", 1933.

"WILL THE ABROAD HELP US?"

— You can learn a lot and quite easily about the foreign life of Elena Dyakonova, about how she turned there first into Madame Eluard, and then into Señora Dali, if you are not lazy. But your conclusions that the Gala in Kazan was not even born at all, and maybe it never happened at all, aren't they too categorical?

— A moment of patience! Once in Moscow, I saw on a book cover large cherished letters - "Dali". I couldn't pass by without buying this book. The author is again French - Sophia Benois, the title is “Gala. How to make a genius out of Salvador Dali. I was just shocked that it mentioned me and my searches. And quite intelligibly, in a writerly way, the answer to your question is given. Read:

“Remember: local historian Renat Bikbulatov conducted a thorough search for documents confirming the origin of the Russian Muse? It turns out that, having learned about these searches, a good friend of Bikbulatov, a psychiatrist professor, said that he once had a patient who assured that she knew the Dyakonov family. According to her, Elena was born in the village of Antonovka, which is located on the road from Kazan to Kamskoe Ustye. The local historian, encouraged by the information received, leafed through the parish registers of two churches in the village for a long period, but found nothing there either.

Why did the wife of Salvador Dali have to compose a story about the fact that she was born on the banks of the Volga in Kazan? “This is the whole Gala,” says R. Bikbulatov. - This woman could not do otherwise - the story of her life had to inspire, and for this to be beautiful. Why not think that Elena Dyakonova was born in Kazan? After all, she appropriated her stepfather's patronymic and became Elena Dimitrievna. And then not Elena at all, but Galina. And that was okay. Who would check where she was born? Agree, Kazan was the best suited for Dali's muse, for her image of a Russian woman, in whose veins Tatar blood flowed. Kazan was known in Europe thanks to the university. And the Dyakonov family, if not rich, then very prosperous. But in the troubled years, when the October Revolution began, and in the Stalin years - repressions, how could Gala say that their family had money? Probably not. And so that no one could verify that this was not so, Gala could further confuse the traces and lie about her place of birth.

- It's a shame if so ... And Rafael Mustafin, your companion in these searches, agreed with these conclusions?

- Let's do this: let's leave your question rhetorical, and in the end we will read the following from Rafael Akhmetovich: “Gala Dali was neither an artist nor an art critic. Nevertheless, she forever inscribed her name in the history of world painting. Dozens of articles and special studies are devoted to it. None of the art theorists who wrote about Salvador Dali can do without mentioning her name and recognizing the huge role that she played in the artist's life. Many art historians draw a parallel between Gala and the Russian wives of Pablo Picasso, Louis Aragon and other prominent figures of Western culture. It is rightly noted that Russian women have brought a special charm and intellectual brilliance to world art. Moreover, the very origins of French surrealism are associated with the influence of Russia and Russian women.

Behind every great man was great woman. For Salvador Dali, this was Gala, which he idolized. In the dedication to the book "The Diary of a Genius" Dali writes: "I dedicate this book to MY GENIUS, my victorious goddess GALA GRADIVA, my ELENA OF TROJAN, my HOLY ELENA, my brilliant as the surface of the sea, GALE GALATEA SERENE".

Salvador Dali was afraid of contact with women, but he could talk about them from the point of view of a great connoisseur female beauty. Here is one of his arguments from the book "The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, told by himself": "At that time, I took an interest in elegant women. And what is an elegant woman? ... So, an elegant woman, firstly, despises you, and secondly, cleanly shaves her armpits ... I have never met a woman who is both beautiful and elegant - these are mutually exclusive characteristics.In an elegant woman, one can always feel the edge of her ugliness (of course, not pronounced) and beauty, which is noticeable, but nothing more ... So, the face of an elegant woman does not need beauty, but her hands and legs should to be impeccably, breathtakingly beautiful and - as far as possible - open to the eye. The chest does not matter at all. If it is beautiful - fine, if not - it is regrettable, but in itself it does not matter. As for the figure, I present one thing to her an indispensable requirement for elegance is the pattern of the hips, steep and lean, if I may say so.You can guess them under any clothes, they seem to challenge.You probably think that the pattern of the shoulders is equally important?Nothing like that. I admit any, if only to worry. Eyes - This is very important! Eyes must at least seem intelligent. An elegant woman cannot have a stupid expression on her face, which is the most characteristic of a beauty and harmoniously harmonizes wonderfully with ideal beauty ... "

Dali met his Russian muse in the summer of 1929, when he was 25 years old. But he dates his first memories of her back to the time of his studies in the first class with Senor Treiter: “... It was in the wonderful theater of Senor Treiter that I saw something that turned my whole soul upside down - I saw a Russian girl, whom I fell in love with at that very moment. Her image imprinted in every cell of my being from the pupils to the fingertips. My Russian girl wrapped in white fur, the troika was taking away somewhere - almost miraculously, she escaped from a pack of ferocious wolves with burning eyes. She looked at me, not looking away, and there was so much pride in her face that her heart sank with admiration ... Was that Gala? I never doubted it - it was her."

Gala was the wife of Paul Eluard, a French poet. Dali and Gala saw each other - and after the first meeting they did not part for 53 years: they were separated by Gala's death in 1982.
Gala means "holiday" in French. She really became a holiday of inspiration for Salvador Dali. The main model for the painter.

The life of Elena Ivanovna Dyakonova, who entered the world history arts like a Gala - a gripping romance.

Elena Dyakonova was born in Kazan in 1894, therefore, she was older than Salvador Dali not by 12, as some claimed, but by exactly 10 years. His father died early, he was a modest official. Mother remarried a lawyer, and when Elena was 17 years old, the family moved to Moscow. She studied at the gymnasium together with Anastasia Tsvetaeva, who left her verbal portrait, and it will be very interesting to peer into it:
"In a half-empty classroom, a thin, long-legged girl is sitting on a desk in short dress. This is Elena Dyakonova. Narrow face, blond braid with a curl at the end. Unusual eyes: brown, narrow, slightly set in Chinese. Dark thick eyelashes of such length that, as their friends later claimed, you could put two matches next to them. In the face of stubbornness and that degree of shyness, which makes the movements abrupt.

In her youth, Gala was a sickly teenager, and in 1912 she was sent to Switzerland to be treated for tuberculosis. In the Clavadel sanatorium, the Russian girl met the young French poet Eugene-Emile-Paul Grandel. His father, a wealthy real estate dealer, sent his son to a sanatorium to be cured... of poetry. Grandel (later he took a different name - Eluard) did not recover from poetry, but Gala got rid of tuberculosis, but both were overcome by another ailment, much more dangerous - they fell in love with each other. It was then that she would call herself Gala - with an emphasis on the last syllable. Perhaps from the French word for "cheerful, lively"?

It was a real passionate romance that ended in marriage. But first, the lovers had to part, Eluard went to France, Gala to Russia, but they continued their love in the epistolary genre, through an exchange of letters. "My dear lover, my darling, my dear boy! Gala wrote to Eluard. - I miss you like something irreplaceable". She addressed him as a "boy", and sometimes even as a child - this Freudian appeal said that Elena had a strong maternal beginning, and she always loved men younger than herself, she wanted to be not only a lover, but also a mother . To patronize, instruct, groom ...
Eluard's father was categorically against his son's connection with a sick and capricious girl from cold and mysterious Russia. "I don't understand why you need this Russian girl? asked the poet's father. - Don't you have enough Parisians?". But the fact of the matter is that the Russian girl was special.

In the spring of 1916, Elena Dyakonova decided to take fate into her own hands and went to the coveted Paris. She was in her 22nd year. Due to the groom's service in the army, the wedding was delayed, but nevertheless took place (Gala achieved her goal!) - in February 1917 in the church of St. Genevieve, whose walls remembered Joan of Arc. The parents of Paul Eluard presented the newlyweds with a huge bed made of bog oak. "On it we will live and on it we will die", - said Eluard and was mistaken: they died separately.

Paul Eluard rendered big influence to Gala. He turned the modest Russian admirer of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky into real woman, almost a fatal “vamp” (for this she had all the makings), and she, in turn, becoming his muse, constantly inspired him to create more and more new poems.
And yet the romantic role of the poet's wife is not in the spirit of Gala. She openly admitted: "I will never be just a housewife. I will read a lot, a lot. I will do whatever I want, but at the same time maintain the attractiveness of a woman who does not overdo herself. manicured nails.

A year after the marriage, a daughter, Cecile, was born. Gala and Paul adored their daughter, but still a normal family did not work out. Paul Eluard could not sit still, separations and trips for her husband did not contribute to domestic happiness. There was mutual dissatisfaction with each other. Stormy quarrels were replaced by no less violent declarations of love. "We grew into each other" Elena thought so. But the ingrowth still turned out to be not so strong. At the same time, one should not forget that Paul Eluard was a poet, and, therefore, looked at the world with different eyes than ordinary people. Let's put it this way: he looked with crazy eyes at crazy world. And accordingly, he built a relationship with his wife. He liked, for example, to show photographs of naked Elena to his friends, and she gradually entered the role of the poet's muse, not as pure as the sinful one. It is no coincidence that soon formed love triangle: Elena - Paul Eluard - artist Max Ernst.

The future Gala quickly learned what the freedom of love means, and immediately took advantage of its fruits. So before meeting with Salvador Dali, Gala was already quite a woman who knew what she needed.
In August 1929, Paul Eluard with his wife Helena (she is 35) and daughter Cecile (she is 11) left Paris by car for Spain, in fishing village Cadaques, on a visit to the young Spanish artist Salvador Dali (he is 25 years old). The poet met Dali at the Bal Gabarin nightclub in Paris and received an invitation to relax in the outback, away from the noise.
On the way to Spain, Eluard enthusiastically told his wife about Dali's unusual work and about his shocking film Andalusian Dog.

"He did not stop admiring his dear Salvador, as if on purpose he pushed me into his arms, although I did not even see him", - Gala later recalled. The artist's house was located outside the village, on the shore of a crescent-shaped bay. It was painted in White color, eucalyptus and geraniums grew in front of him, standing out brightly against the black gravel.
To impress the new guest, about whom he had heard something, the artist decided to appear before her in an extravagant form. Why he slashed his silk shirt, shaved his armpits and dyed them blue, rubbed his body with an original cologne made from fish glue, goat droppings and lavender to activate sensory effects. He stuck a red geranium behind his ear and was about to go out to the guests in such an irresistible form, on the beach, when he saw Eluard's wife in the window. She seemed to the artist the height of perfection. He was especially impressed by Elena's face, strict and arrogant, as well as the boyish body and buttocks, about which Eluard wrote: "They fit comfortably in my hands." The eyes were also hurt. Wet and brown, large and round, they, according to the same Eluard, had the ability to "penetrate through walls."

Dali washed off all the paint and appeared on the beach almost an ordinary person. He went up to Elena and suddenly realized that in front of him was his only and real love. The realization of this came to him like an insight, like a flash, which is why he could not talk to her normally, because he was attacked by convulsive, hysterical laughter. He couldn't stop. Elena looked at him with undisguised curiosity.

Gala was not a beauty, but she had great charm, female magnetism, vibes emanated from her that bewitched men. It is no coincidence that the French publisher, art collector Pierre Argille, answering journalists' questions, said: "This woman had an extraordinary attraction. Her first husband, Eluard, until his death wrote her the most tender love letters. And only after he died in 1942, Dali and Gala officially got married. Salvador drew her endlessly. To be honest, she was not so young for a model, but artists, you know, are not easy people, since she inspired him..."

In his book " secret life Dali writes:

“She admitted that she took me for a nasty and unbearable type because of my varnished hair, which gave me the appearance of a professional Argentine tango dancer ... In my room I always went naked, but if I had to go to the village, for an hour I dressed myself in immaculate white trousers, fantastic sandals, silk shirts, a necklace of fake pearls and a bracelet on my wrist."

"She started to see me as a genius, - Dali further admitted. - Half crazy, but possessing great spiritual power. And she was waiting for something - the embodiment of her own myths. Thought I might be able to be that incarnation."

Gala version: "I knew right away that he was a genius". Eluard was talented, and Dali was a genius, and Elena Dyakonova-Eluard immediately identified this. She had an innate artistic flair.

And what happened next? And then Gala allegedly told Salvador Dali a "historical phrase": "My a little boy we will never leave each other". She firmly decided to connect her life with the artist Dali and leave the poet Eluard. In fact, she left not only her husband, but also her daughter. What turned out to be more in this decision? Adventurism or deep calculation? It's hard to answer.
What was Paul Eluard to do? He packed his bags and left the refuge of Salvador Dali, having received a kind of compensation for the loss of his wife in the form of his own portrait (Portrait of Paul Eluard). Dali explained the idea of ​​​​its creation as follows: "I felt that I was entrusted with the duty to capture the face of the poet, from whose Olympus I stole one of the muses."

At first, Gala and Salvador lived together unofficially, and only after the death of Eluard did they officially get married. They got married on August 8, 1958, 29 years after they first met. The ceremony was private, almost secret. It was, of course, a strange marriage in all worldly senses, but not in a creative one. Sensual Gala, who even at the time of Dali did not want to remain a faithful wife, and a virgin artist who was terribly afraid of intimacy with a woman. How did they get along with each other? Obviously, Dali turned his sexual energy into creative energy, and Gala realized her sensuality on the side. As the Spanish journalist Antonio D. Olano testifies: "She really was insatiable. Gala tirelessly pursued the young men who posed for Dali, and often got her way. Dali was also insatiable, but only in his imagination."
In everyday life, they turned out to be almost perfect couple, as often happens with quite different people. Salvador Dali - absolutely impractical, timid, notorious person, who was afraid of everything - from riding in elevators to concluding contracts. Regarding the latter, Gala once said: "In the morning, El Salvador makes mistakes, and in the afternoon I correct them by tearing up the treaties he signed lightly."

This surrealistic Madonna in everyday affairs was a cold and rather rational woman, so with Dali they represented two different areas: Ice and fire.
"Gala pierced me like a sword directed by providence itself- wrote Salvador Dali. - It was a ray of Jupiter, as a sign from above, indicating that we should never part."
Before meeting with the Gala, the artist was only on the threshold own glory. This woman helped him step over the threshold and enjoy the sparkling halls of worldwide popularity. Gal's appearance coincided with a break with the Surrealist group. In fact, it was the Gala that took Salvador Dali away from the aesthetic control of Breton and his entire company. But it didn't happen right away.
"Soon you will be the way I want you to be", she announced to him, and the artist believed her. "I blindly believed everything she told me."

But Gala not only predicted, she selflessly and selflessly helped him, looked for rich sponsors, organized exhibitions, and sold his paintings. "We never gave up in the face of failure., Dali noted. - We got out thanks to the strategic dexterity of Gal. We didn't go anywhere. Gala sewed her own dresses, and I worked a hundred times more than any mediocre artist."

From a Parisian who found pleasure in the entertainment of the bohemia, Gala turned into a nanny, secretary, manager of a genius artist, and then into the mistress of a huge empire, whose name is Dali. The empire was being pieced together. When there were no pictures, Gala forced Dali to do various crafts: to develop models of hats, ashtrays, decorate shop windows, advertise certain goods ... You can say that she kept Dali under constant financial and creative pressure. And it is possible that such an appeal was necessary for a weak-willed and poorly organized person, such as Salvador Dali was. Of course, this did not go unnoticed, and the press often represented Gala as the embodiment of evil, reproached her for being cruel, greedy and immoral. According to Olano, Gala squandered money right and left and did it very cheerfully, but already when the Dali empire began to prosper and money flowed like a river from everywhere.

Journalist Frank Whitford in The Sunday Times simply called Dali's muse a predator. He wrote in a newspaper in the summer of 1994: "The family couple Gala - Dali to some extent resembled the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Helpless in everyday life, an extremely sensual artist was captivated by a tough, prudent and desperately upward predator, which the surrealists dubbed the Gala Plague. It was also said of her that her gaze penetrates the walls of bank vaults. However, in order to find out the state of Dali's account, she did not need x-ray abilities: the account was offended. She simply took the defenseless and undoubtedly gifted Dali and turned him into a multimillionaire and a world-class "star". Even before the marriage in 1934, Gala managed to ensure that crowds of wealthy collectors began to besiege their house, passionately desiring to acquire relics consecrated by the genius of Dali.

Dali and Gala liked to emphasize the brilliance and significance of their public life with the help of photographs: this famous beautiful extravagant couple has always been the focus of photographers and unnecessarily often become the object of a photo hunt.

In 1934, the Dali couple went to the USA - it was exclusively right move, dictated by Gal's amazing intuition, she definitely felt that it was the Americans who would like and afford Dali's talent. And she was not mistaken: in the USA, Salvador Dali was waiting for a sensational success - the country was seized by a "surreal fever". In honor of Dali, surreal balls with masquerades were held, at which guests appeared in costumes, as if inspired by the artist's fantasy - extravagant, provocative, funny. The couple returned home rich and very famous: America transferred Dali's talent to highest level- into genius. A second trip to the US in 1939 further strengthened the initial success.

Two circumstances contributed to the rapid growth of Dali's popularity across the ocean - an unsurpassed ability to arrange public scandals and a partial revision of artistic principles, which made the works of the Spanish surrealist more accessible to the general public.

In America, spouses live all the war and the first post-war years. With the help of Dali, of course, Gala arranges exhibitions, gives lectures, paints portraits of wealthy Americans, illustrates books, writes scripts, librettos and costumes for ballet and opera productions, decorates the windows of luxury stores on Fifth Avenue in New York and the pavilions of international fairs, collaborates with Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney, tries his hand at photography and arranges surrealistic balls. In short, gushing with might and main! ..

"Worldwide- writes Dali, - and especially in America, people are burning with the desire to know what is the secret of the method by which I managed to achieve such success. And this method really exists. It's called the paranoid-critical method. For more than thirty years I have invented it and have been using it with constant success, although to this day I have not been able to understand what this method is. In general, it could be defined as the strictest logical systematization of the most delusional and insane phenomena and matters in order to give a tangibly creative character to my most dangerous obsessions. This method works only if you own a gentle motor of divine origin, a certain living core, a certain Gala - and she is the only one in the whole world ... ".

In the late 1940s, the couple returned to Europe in triumph. Fame, money - everything is in abundance. Everything is fine, except for one thing: Gala is getting old. However, she does not give up and is still a model for numerous Dali paintings. He constantly painted her in the image of a mythical woman, a kind of "Atomic Leda" and even with the face of Christ. In the famous painting "The Last Supper" you can recognize the features of Gala. And all because the artist did not get tired of idolizing his muse. Gala, Gradiva, Galatea, my talisman, my lay, my gold, olive - this is only a small part of the names that the painter gave to his muse and wife. High-sounding titles and sophisticatedly sensual nicknames were, as it were, part of the "surreality" in which the spouses lived. In one of the paintings by the artist, Christopher Columbus, having stepped onto the shores of the New World, carries a banner with the image of Gala and the inscription: "I love Gala more than my mother, more than my father, more than Picasso and even more money".

As for the mother - this is not a slip of the tongue. Salvador Dali, who lost his mother early and did not receive her love, subconsciously searched for his mother and found her ideal expression in Gala, but she, in turn, found a son in him (she loved her daughter Cecile less, and it was no coincidence that she was raised by Paul's grandmother Eluard).

As Dali wrote in his diary:
"Like a mother to a child suffering from lack of appetite, she patiently repeated: - Admire, little Dali, what a rare thing I got. Just try it, it's liquid amber, and also unburnt. They say Vermeer himself wrote it."

Sister Gala Lydia, who once visited the spouses, noted that she had never seen a more tender and touching attitude of a woman to a man in her life: “Gala fusses with Dali like a child, reads to him at night, makes him drink some necessary pills, sorts out his nightmares with him and dispels his suspiciousness with endless patience. Dali threw hours at another visitor - Gala rushes to him with soothing drops "God forbid, he'll have a seizure." Could the “woman - the embodiment of evil”, the “greedy Valkyrie”, as the journalists called her, hold on like that?

The father and sister of Salvador Dali, who strictly professed all the canons of the Catholic faith, could never forgive him for antics with a portrait of his mother and marriage with Gala, therefore real family for him was the Italian family of Giuseppe and Mara Albaretto, with whom Dali associated many years of friendship, their daughter Christina became Dali's goddaughter.

Mara Albaretto: "He was extremely eccentric, extravagant. When asked why he portrayed Gal's beloved wife with two chops on her back, he simply answered: "I love my wife and I love chops; I don't understand why I can't draw them together"...

Salvador Dali and Gala together organized their sensational "happenings", erotic spectacles with a touch of scandal. Those wishing to take part in them were more than enough. The glory of the artist attracted many women to him. Once they passed indifferently past, and then there was no end to them, this happens quite often with famous people. Ladies, with or without a name, sought dates with Dali. Often he agreed, but all these dates took place according to the script of the artist. So, the artist lovingly undressed one Danish lady, and then decorated it with lobsters and other marine life for a long time. In the end it turned out beautiful. Dali was pleased and kindly said goodbye to the woman. Whether she was satisfied is the question.

The intimate life of the spouses forever remained a secret. In all likelihood, there was no such thing as loyalty in it. For Gala, it was a free marriage, and she was free to choose her lovers. "Not free, my dear, not free!". But this applies to her young and mature years. Later, she had to pay herself.

When in 1964 Galya turned seventy years old. She dyed her hair, sometimes already put on a wig and thought about plastic surgery. But the older she got, the more she wanted love. She tried to seduce anyone who got in her way. "El Salvador doesn't care, each of us has our own life", - she convinced her husband's friends, dragging them into bed.

Her lover was the young singer Jeff Fenholt, one of the performers leading role in the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar". They said that it was Gala who caused his breakup with his young wife, who had just given birth to his child. Gala took an active part in the fate of Jeff, created conditions for him to work and even gave him a luxurious house on Long Island. It was her last love. Of course, love for Salvador Dali does not count.

And yet Gala remains a mystery. In numerous interviews that she gave over half a century, she stubbornly did not talk about her relationship with Dali. All her letters to Eluard ex-husband destroyed by asking her to do the same with hers, so that "to deprive curious descendants of a glimpse into their intimate lives". True, Gala, according to the artist, left an autobiography on which she worked for 4 years. Gala kept a diary in Russian. Where these priceless documents are now is unknown. Perhaps the art world is waiting for new finds and new discoveries.

The medieval castle of Pubol (near Porta Lligata) became a manifestation of Dali's passionate love. Gala received such a gift at the age of 74, when their marital relationship became more complicated. Dali increasingly rested in the company of fashion model Amanda Lear. However, he tried not to move away from Gala, who wanted peace and monastic peace. Dali was able to visit her only with her written permission.

The last years of Gala were poisoned by illnesses and rapidly impending senile infirmity. "Day of death she said, will be the happiest day of my life.". It came on June 10, 1982. Gala lived for 88 years. Stormy and unique.

Aleksey Medvedenko gave the following information to the Sovetskaya Kultura newspaper from Madrid:
“Dali intended to fulfill his wife’s last will: to bury her in Pubol, located 80 kilometers from Port Lligat, in a castle that Dali had given to his beloved at one time. However, an ancient Spanish law issued during the plague epidemic forbade transporting the body without permission Authorities Dali violates the law for the sake of Gala. The naked body of the deceased was wrapped in a blanket and placed in the back seat of the Cadillac. Arturo gets behind the wheel. They are accompanied by a sister of mercy. They agreed that if they were stopped by the police, they would say that Gala died on the way to the hospital. The famous "Cadillac" Dali, a witness to many happy trips to France and Italy, turned into a hearse. An hour later, he delivers the deceased to Pubol. Everything was already prepared for burial. A coffin with a transparent lid with the body of Gala was buried in the crypt of the castle on June 11 at six o'clock in the evening in the presence of Dali himself ... ".

The 78-year-old Dali refused to attend the funeral.

Salvador Dali survived the Gala by 7 years.

An ugly Russian, a brilliant art manager, a desperate nymphomaniac, a prudent predator - this is how contemporaries spoke about Gala Dali. Many still do not understand how a Russian girl managed to conquer France and create one of the main miracles of the 20th century - Salvador Dali.

Elena Dyakonova

In the circumstances of the birth of Elena Dyakonova, there was not a hint of a legendary fate. The daughter of a Kazan official who died early. At the age of 17, Lena's family moved to Moscow, where the girl entered the gymnasium. She studied with Anastasia Tsvetaeva, Marina's sister, who would later write about Dyakonova like this:

In a half-empty classroom, a thin, long-legged girl in a short dress sits on a desk. This is Elena Dyakonova. Narrow face, blond braid with a curl at the end. Unusual eyes: brown, narrow, slightly set in Chinese. Dark thick eyelashes of such length that, as their friends later claimed, you could put two matches next to them. In the face of stubbornness and that degree of shyness, which makes the movements abrupt.

At the age of 18, Elena fell ill with tuberculosis, which was common for that time. The family collects all the savings and sends the girl to a sanatorium in Switzerland.
There she changes the hated simple name Elena to Gala with an emphasis on the second syllable. This is how she appears to the young French poet Eugene-Emile-Paul Grandel.

The first attempt to create a genius

Gala's meeting with Eugene leads to a passionate romance. The son of a wealthy real estate dealer was supposed to be cured of his poetry in a sanatorium, but instead he discovered in himself an even greater poetic talent. The Russian muse comes up with a new name for him - Paul Eluard, under which he will become famous.

Returning to Russia, Gala immediately decides that this is not for long. This is not the fate she wants for herself.

I will never be just a housewife. I will read a lot, a lot. I will do whatever I want, but at the same time maintain the attractiveness of a woman who does not overwork herself. I will shine like a cocotte, smell of perfume and always have well-groomed hands with manicured nails.

From this moment on, all life will develop only as Gala wishes. In the spring of 1916, she goes to Paris and marries Eluard - despite the protests of his father. They planned to die together, but this marriage lasted 12 years. During this time, a daughter was born, to whom Gala never showed much interest. Life was spent in chic taverns and elite resorts. Both spouses were famous for their erotic adventures, and their love triangle with the artist Max Ernst was known to everyone.

Gala and Dali

In August 1929, Paul and Gala went to the Spanish fishing village of Cadaqués to visit the young artist. In this wilderness, 35-year-old Gala meets the main love of her life - Salvador Dali. Absurd, full of oddities, at the sight of her, he rolled into hysterical laughter from excitement. She didn't like his lacquered hair and a woman's necklace of fake pearls on a silk shirt.

Gala immediately saw genius in Dali. She broke up with Eluard to link her life with El Salvador forever.

My little boy, we will never leave each other.

As always, everything happened the way Gala wanted. Many later saw in her choice a clear calculation. This Russian had an amazing talent for inspiring and, at the same time, an iron grip and a pragmatic mind.

At the time of the meeting, Dali was more than 10 years younger than Gala and had almost no relationships with women. He was always absolutely not adapted for life - he was afraid to ride in an elevator, conclude contracts, frighten those around him with his eccentric manners.

Gala breaks up with Paul and begins a modest life with an artist in a Spanish village, where she sews her own clothes and runs around galleries with Dali's works, looking for rich sponsors, selling his paintings.

She constantly controlled Dali, forced to do anything - making hats, advertising, decorating shop windows. She brought the artist new paints and materials, persuaded him to try them. For this indefatigable ardor, she was called a tyrant and a predator.

This is what journalist Frank Whitford wrote about their union:

Helpless in everyday life, an extremely sensual artist was captivated by a tough, prudent and desperately upward predator, which the surrealists dubbed the Gala Plague. It was also said of her that her gaze penetrates the walls of bank vaults. However, in order to find out the state of Dali's account, she did not need x-ray abilities - the account was general. She simply took the defenseless and undoubtedly gifted Dali and turned him into a multimillionaire and a world-class "star". Even before the marriage in 1934, Gale managed to ensure that crowds of wealthy collectors began to besiege their house, eager to acquire relics consecrated by the genius of Dali.

Success

The energy of Gala, multiplied by the genius of the artist, brings generous results. Everyone talks about them, this is the most shocking couple, each of their appearance in public is a scandal.

In 1934, she decides what they need in the USA. Any businessman could envy such intuition. America is delighted with the surrealist, where the couple spends the war and post-war years. Dali illustrates books, composes scripts, costumes for ballet and opera productions, paints portraits of wealthy Americans, collaborates with Hitchcock and Disney - all under the strict supervision of the Russian muse.

Gala and Dali return to France even richer and more famous.

It is still impossible to say unequivocally whether the world would have known about Dali's talent if the "cruel" Gala had not been next to him. She replaced the artist's mother, whom he lost early, family and the whole world. Without her, he could not create, parting even for a day, Dali was not able to draw. Here is what the genius himself wrote in his diary:

Like a mother to an anorexic child, she patiently repeated: “Look, baby Dali, what a rare thing I got. You just try it, it's liquid ambergris, and besides unburnt. They say that Vermeer himself painted it.

Gala's sister, Lydia, wrote that she had never seen a more reverent attitude of a woman to a man:

Gala fiddles with Dali, like with a child, reads to him at night, makes him drink some necessary pills, sorts out his nightmares with him and dispels his suspiciousness with infinite patience. Dali threw hours at another visitor - Gala rushes to him with sedative drops - God forbid, he will have a seizure.

It is not known what Gala loved more - money or Dali. At the end of her life, she became very petty, counted every dollar, and after her death, a suitcase with money was found under the bed. For El Salvador, she has always been a deity, without which it did not exist.

Passion

The fact that Gala is ugly was recognized by everyone except Dali. However, men seemed to fall into a trance from her natural magnetism. Chanel suits fit perfectly on her beautiful chiseled figure. Smartly dressed, she entered the salon with a deck of cards and began to predict the future of people.

After returning from the USA, the glory of Gala and Dali becomes global. It would seem that life is just beginning, but Gala is getting old. At 70, she dyes her hair, puts on a wig and thinks about plastic surgery. However, surprisingly, sexual desire it only grew every year. She was always incredibly loving, pursued all Dali's sitters, seduced many of them. She surrounded herself with young boys, arranged orgies, gave her lovers money and insanely expensive gifts.

Dali also starts novels, but only Gala always remains his love. On her 74th birthday, she receives a gift from the artist medieval castle Pubol. Dali could visit him only with the written permission of Gala.

After her death at the age of 88, Dali will live only another seven - during this time he will only take up a brush once and almost completely lose his mind. Gala will live on in his countless paintings: "The first portrait of Gala", "Galarina", "Just a portrait of Gala", "Dali's hand tightens The Golden Fleece to show Gala naked Aurora far ahead behind the sun", "Portrait of Gala with two lamb chops on her shoulder", "Three faces of Gala on the rocks", "Dali from the back, writing Gala from the back", "Gala and Millet's Evening Prayer before the inevitable advent of conical anamorphoses”, “Gala, looking at the Mediterranean Sea, turns into a portrait of Abraham Lincoln at a distance of twenty meters”, “Dali, raising the surface mediterranean sea to show Gala the birth of Venus”, “Portrait of Gala with rhinoceros signs”, “Daytime dream of Gala”, “Three glorious riddles of Gala”, and finally “Christ Gala”.

At the time of the meeting, Gala was 35 years old, and Salvador was 25. It would seem that what could be in common between the Russian wife of a French poet and an artist whose expression and eccentricities were rumored? However, their strong union it was destined to last 53 years, despite the fact that Gala was 10 years older than Dali. Some called this mysterious woman from Russia a “predator”, considering her an exploiter who forced the artist to create. Others are sure that if not for the inspiration of Gala, her support and faith in Dali, then the genius of Salvador could be lost to the World.

Who is Gala?

Gala, with emphasis on last letter, as in all French words, her real name is Elena Ivanovna Dyakonova. She was born in 1894 in Kazan in a poor family. Her father was a petty official, he died when the girl was still quite young. young age. Mother remarried a lawyer. When Elena was 17 years old, the family moved to Moscow. There, the girl became a high school student, by the way, she studied with the future poetess Marina Tsvetaeva.

Childhood of Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was born in 1904 in Figueres, Spain. His father was an atheist notary, and his mother was an ardent supporter of Catholicism. During his school years, his talent as an artist manifested itself in drawings on the margins of notebooks. Later, the artist Ramon Piho worked with Dali. Part of the boy walked among the representatives of the lower strata of society, sailors, fishermen, absorbing the mythology of his people, which was later reflected in his works. At the age of 17, he went to Madrid to study at the Academy of Fine Arts, but fell under the influence of Lorca and Bunuel - ardent opponents of conservative norms and was expelled from the Academy for spreading "rebellious" ideas. Salvador's father was upset: he still consoled himself with hopes that his son would follow the path of a civil servant.

So gradually, step by step, under the influence of Nietzsche, Freud, Breton, Joan Miro, Dali offered the world a completely new artistic approach, which he called the "paranoid-critical method."

Gala and Paul Eluard: the poet's muse

Elena had very poor health since childhood, and at the age of 18 she was diagnosed with tuberculosis. For treatment, the girl is sent to Switzerland, where in the sanatorium there was a fatal acquaintance with the poet from France, Eugene-Emile-Paul-Grendel, this is the future Paul Eluard. Parents sent Paul there to be treated for a strange disease - poetry.

And then it began: a passionate romance broke out between them.

The poet's father and mother were against it, in every possible way discouraging Paul from any kind of connection with the "Russian girl". But it was useless. The flame has already flared up, despite the fact that the lovers had to leave for a while, they constantly sent letters to each other. Even then, in the letters, a bright maternal beginning can be traced in Elena (it was during this period that she decides to rename herself Gala, which means “holiday”, “fun”). Often she refers to the field as "boy", "darling".

Wedding Gala and Paul Eluard

The passionate romance of Gala and Paul ended with their wedding in 1917. Eluard's parents presented the newlyweds with a huge bed as a gift, on which the poet romantically planned to "die" with his beloved, but that was not the case.

A year after the legal bonding of marriage, their daughter Cecile was born in their family. Despite this event, so joyful for both, their union did not promise happiness. Eluard could not sit still, often traveled, sometimes he was eccentric. In the house, scandals have become commonplace. For example, a poet could easily show nude pictures to his friends. Gala was both Paul's muse and irritant. She soon entered into an extramarital relationship with the artist Max Ernst.

The fateful meeting of Galla and Salvador Dali

The marriage of Galla and Paul Eluard lasted almost eleven years. One day in the summer of 1929, the Eluard family decided to travel by car from Paris to the Spanish village of Cadaqués to visit the young artist Salvador Dali. This idea belonged to Paul, he was shocked by Dali's Andalusian Dog. At the moment fateful meeting Galya was 35 years old, she was a seasoned woman who had gained solid life experience, and Salvador Dali had recently turned 25 years old.

All the way to the village Eluard praised the work of Dali. Before the arrival of the guests, Salvador dressed up especially for the meeting: he painted his armpits blue, sprinkled himself with homemade lavender perfume, smeared himself with goat droppings and fish glue. In such a shocking outfit, he was going to appear before the Elyuard family. However, by chance his eyes fell on Paul's wife. He saw her from the window of his house. Before the guests, Dali appeared already in his normal appearance, but speechless. Then he felt that this woman would be his true and only love of his life.

Fruitful creative union: Gala and Salvador Dali

Galla's contemporaries noted that she was not a beauty, but there was something in her that was attractive to many men: severity, mystery, magnetism ... As Gala later admits, at first glance at Dali, she realized that in front of her was a genius.

So Gala made, perhaps, one of the most important decisions in her life: to leave her husband and daughter and devote her life to a young artist. Without regard to the wealth of her husband and the poverty of the artist.

Only after the death of Eluard, 29 years after the meeting, the couple officially sealed their bonds by marriage.

Their union was like a union of ice and fire: strict, prudent Gala and timid Dali. Rumor has it that before marriage he was a virgin and was terrified of any contact with the female sex.

Nevertheless, the huge influence of Gala on Dali paid off: the artist left the influence of Breton and his group and became independent. He worked hard, his beloved was not only his muse, but also his producer, art director, marketer: she herself created exhibitions of works, constantly looked for wealthy sponsors and negotiated with them, and sold paintings.

Gradually, information began to leak into the press that Dali was working under pressure from Gala, allegedly she was forcing him to create paintings, and when the paintings did not come from under the brush, she planted him for the development of new accessories and interior items. Perhaps this was how the weak-willed and fearful Salvador should have been treated.

In 1994, an article was published where the journalist called Galla a predator, who took a defenseless and weak-willed artist with some talent with a cruel and strong grip and on her own made him a millionaire and a “star”, for the possibility of owning whose works crowds of rich people and moneybags lined up .

Gala herself was in seventh heaven with happiness. She squandered money right and left.

Journey to the USA: the peak of popularity of Salvador Dali

Galla's intuition led the couple to the United States, where it seemed that the public was just waiting for their arrival. In 1934, artistic canons were just being revised, and the beau monde was bored in anticipation of scandals and shocking. America presented them with a dizzying reception: Dali's works were bought up for fabulous sums, noisy parties were held in their honor. This trip only added a couple of fame and money.

During the war years and several post-war years, Gala and Dali lived in the United States, the popularity of the artist, thanks to the actions of Gal, was at its peak. The genius created and created his masterpieces.

Gala phenomenon

“Galatea”, “my talisman”, “my treasure”, “my gold” - this is how Dali wrote about his wife. Her image can be found in the images of many paintings, even in the face of the Mother of God. The artist has repeatedly said that he loves her more than anything in the world - more money, fame, even more than his mother. Or rather, instead of the mother. The artist lost his mother early, and Gala managed to give him maternal care and love, which the man lacked so much.

Those close to the couple, in particular, Gala's sister, having come to visit them, repeatedly spoke about Gala's maternal behavior in relation to El Salvador: she cleaned up after him, brought drinks and food, deified, took care of him in every possible way.

And in response, the artist created: he signed the paintings: “Gala Salvador Dali.” In fact, Gala created the Salvador Dali brand with her own hands, was not only his muse, but also a skilled manager and financier. She managed to convince Dali of his exclusivity, uniqueness and genius, and the artist, in response, was ready to present the whole world to Gala.

Fight against time

A couple of Dali and Gala, which many people called "schizophrenics", "crazy", "perverts". Gala gradually grew old. In senseless attempts to somehow keep her youth, Gala either lay down under the scalpel of a plastic surgeon, then took “magic” pills to preserve her youth, then went on diets. Luxury, fame, wealth - all this gave the woman the opportunity to keep younger lovers next to her. One of them was Jeff Fenholt - main actor rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar". But that wasn't enough for her. Once Gala turned to El Salvador with a request to buy her a castle in Pubol. There, a woman arranged orgies, but Dali was a very rare guest at them. Entrance to him was possible only in the case of her written invitation.

At the end of life

In 1982, as a result of a fall, Gala broke her femoral neck. She was placed in a hospital, where her mind gradually left. The artist's muse died alone, forgotten by many of her lovers, on whom she spent money so carelessly and generously.

Dali, having learned about this, went on a violation of the law (in those days it was impossible to transport the bodies of the dead on their own) - he put on Gala her favorite dress, big sunglasses, put her in a Cadillac and took her to the castle in Pubol, where his muse and was buried.

Dali after the death of his Muse

After the death of his beloved, source of inspiration, wife, friend all rolled into one. Salvador Dali closed himself in. He no longer returned to the canvas, as if his gift had left. The artist seemed to be going crazy, lost interest in life, ate little, behaved aggressively, rushed at his interlocutors, instead of normal speech - lowing that no one could make out. In this mode, he spent the remaining seven years.

Conclusion:

In many ways, thanks to the Gala, the world learned about Salvador Dali. She was his wife, mother, friend rolled into one. As Dali himself admitted many times, he owes everything that he has entirely to “his Gala”.