Behind every great man stood great woman. For Salvador Dali, this was the 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 HELENA OF TROJAN, my HOLY HELENA, my resplendent as the sea surface, GALA GALATEA THE SERIOUS".
Salvador Dali was afraid of contact with women, but could talk about them from the point of view of a great connoisseur female beauty. Here is one of his thoughts from the book “The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, Told by Himself”: “At that time, I became interested in elegant women. And what is an elegant woman?... So, an elegant woman, firstly, despises you, and secondly, she shaves her armpits clean... I have never met a woman who is beautiful at the same time and elegant - these are mutually exclusive characteristics. In an elegant woman, the line between her ugliness (of course, not clearly expressed) and beauty is always noticeable, which is noticeable, but nothing more... So, the face of an elegant woman does not need beauty, but her arms and legs should to be impeccably, breathtakingly beautiful and - as much as possible - open to the eye. Breasts have absolutely no meaning. If they are beautiful - great, if not - it's unfortunate, but in itself it doesn't matter. As for the figure, I demand one thing for it An indispensable requirement for elegance is the design of the hips, steep and lean, so to speak. You can spot them under any clothing, they seem to pose a challenge. You probably think that the design of the shoulders is no less important? Nothing of the sort. I allow anyone, as long as it excites me. Eyes - This is very important! The eyes must at least seem smart. Elegant women cannot have stupid expression face, which could not be more characteristic of a beauty and is in remarkable harmony 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 he was studying in the first grade with Senor Traiter: “...It was in Senor Traiter’s wonderful theater that I saw something that changed my whole soul - I saw a Russian girl, whom I fell in love with at that very moment. Her image was imprinted in every cell of my being, from my pupils to my fingertips, at that moment. My Russian girl, wrapped in white fur, was carried away somewhere by a troika - almost miraculously, she escaped from a pack of fierce wolves with burning eyes. She looked at me, without looking away, and there was so much pride in her face that her heart sank with admiration. ..Was it Gala? I never doubted it - it was her."
Gala was the wife of Paul Eluard, French poet. Dali and Gala saw each other - and after their first meeting they did not part for 53 years: they were separated by Gala's death in 1982. 
Gala means "celebration" in French. It truly became a celebration of inspiration for Salvador Dali. The main model for the painter.
The life of Elena Ivanovna Dyakonova, who entered the world history arts like Gala, is a captivating novel.
Elena Dyakonova was born in Kazan in 1894, which means that she was not 12 years older than Salvador Dali, as some claimed, but exactly 10 years. My father died early; he was a modest official. Her mother remarried a lawyer, and when Elena turned 17, the family moved to Moscow. She studied at the gymnasium with Anastasia Tsvetaeva, who left a verbal portrait of her, and it will be very interesting to look at it:
"In a half-empty classroom, a thin, long-legged girl in short dress. This is Elena Dyakonova. Narrow face, light brown braid with a curl at the end. Unusual eyes: brown, narrow, slightly Chinese-set. Dark thick eyelashes are so long that, as friends later claimed, you could put two matches on them side by side. There is stubbornness in the face and that degree of shyness that makes movements abrupt.”
IN early years Gala was a sickly teenager, and in 1912 she was sent to Switzerland to be treated for tuberculosis. At the Clavadel sanatorium, a 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 cure him... of poetry. Grandel (later he took another name - Eluard) was not cured of poetry, but Gala got rid of tuberculosis, but both were overcome by another illness, much more dangerous - they fell in love with each other. It is then that she will call herself Gala - with the emphasis on the last syllable. Perhaps from the French word meaning "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 the exchange of letters. "My dear beloved, 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 address indicated that Elena had a strong maternal element, and she always loved men younger than herself, wanted to be not only their mistress, but also their mother . To patronize, instruct, groom...
Eluard's father was categorically against his son's relationship 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. - Are the Parisian ones not enough for you?". 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 22 years old. Due to the groom's service in the army, the wedding was delayed, but still took place (Gala achieved her goal!) - in February 1917 in the Church of St. Genevieve, the walls of which remembered Joan of Arc. Paul Eluard's parents presented the newlyweds with a huge bed made of stained oak. "We will live on it and we will die on it", - said Eluard and was mistaken: they died separately.
Paul Eluard provided big influence at the Gala. He turned a modest Russian fan of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky into a real woman, almost a fatal “vamp” (she had all the makings for this), 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 overwork herself. I will shine like a cocotte, smell like perfume and always have well-groomed hands with manicured nails."
A year after the wedding, their daughter Cecile was born. Gala and Paul adored their daughter, but still they did not have a normal family. Paul Eluard could not sit still; separations and trips to pick up his husband did not contribute to domestic happiness. Mutual dissatisfaction with each other arose. Stormy quarrels gave way to no less stormy declarations of love. "We have grown into each other"- Elena thought so. But the ingrowth still turned out to be not so strong. At the same time, we must 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 at a crazy world with crazy eyes. And accordingly, I built my relationship with my wife this way. For example, he loved to show nude photographs of Elena to his friends, and she gradually entered into a role that was not as pure as sinful muse poet. It is no coincidence that it soon formed love triangle: Elena - Paul Eluard - artist Max Ernst.
The future Gala quickly learned what freedom of love means and immediately took advantage of its fruits. So before meeting Salvador Dali, Gala was already a woman who knew what she needed.
In August 1929, Paul Eluard with his wife Elena (she is 35 years old) and daughter Cecile (she is 11 years old) went from Paris by car to Spain, to the fishing village of Cadaques, to visit the young Spanish artist Salvador Dali (he is 25 years old). The poet met Dali at the Parisian nightclub "Bal Gabarin" and received an invitation to relax in the outback, away from the noise.
On the way to Spain, Eluard enthusiastically told his wife about the unusual work of Dali and his shocking film “Un Chien Andalusian.”
“He never ceased to admire his dear Salvador, as if he was deliberately pushing me into his arms, although I didn’t 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, in front of him grew eucalyptus and flaming geraniums, standing out brightly against the black gravel.
To amaze the new guest, about whom he had heard something, the artist decided to appear before her in an extravagant manner. For this purpose, he striped his silk shirt, shaved his armpits and painted them blue, rubbed his body with an original cologne made of fish glue, goat droppings and lavender to use the sensory effects. He put a red geranium behind his ear and was about to go out to the guests on the beach in such an irresistible form, 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, stern and arrogant, as well as her boyish body and buttocks, about which Eluard wrote: “They fit comfortably in my hands.” The eyes were also striking. 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 came to the beach almost an ordinary person. He approached 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, feminine magnetism, and she gave off vibes that bewitched men. It is no coincidence that French book publisher and art collector Pierre Argillet, answering questions from journalists, said: "This woman had extraordinary attractiveness. Her first husband, Eluard, wrote her the most tender love letters until his death. And only after he died in 1942, Dali and Gala officially got married. Salvador painted her endlessly. To be honest, she was not so young for a model, but artists, you know, are not an 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 lacquered hair, which gave me the look of a professional Argentine tango dancer... In my room I always walked naked, but if I had to go to the village, for an hour "I was putting myself in order. I wore immaculate white trousers, fantastic sandals, silk shirts, a necklace of fake pearls and a bracelet on my wrist."
"She began to view 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. I thought that maybe I could become this incarnation."
Gala version: “I immediately realized 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.
What happened next? And then Gala allegedly said a “historical phrase” to Salvador Dali: "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. Essentially, she abandoned not only her husband, but also her daughter. What was more in this decision? Adventurism or deep calculation? It's difficult to answer.
What could Paul Eluard 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 this way: “I felt that I was entrusted with the responsibility of capturing 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 Eluard’s death did they officially get married. They got married on August 8, 1958, 29 years after their first meeting. Moreover, the ceremony was private, almost secret. It was, of course, strange marriage in all everyday senses, but not in the creative sense. Sensual Gala, who even in Dali’s time did not want to stay faithful wife, - and a virgin artist who was terrified 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 found themselves almost perfect couple, as often happens with absolutely different people. Salvador Dali is an absolutely impractical, timid, complex 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, tearing up the treaties he frivolously signed.”
This surreal Madonna was a cold and quite rational woman in everyday affairs, 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, like a sign from above, indicating that we should never part."
Before meeting Gala, the artist was only on the threshold of his own fame. This woman helped him cross the threshold and enjoy the sparkling halls of worldwide popularity. The appearance of Gala coincided with a break with the surrealist group. As a matter of fact, it was the Gala that took Salvador Dali away from the aesthetic control of Breton and his entire company. But this did not 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 predicted for 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., noted Dali. - We got out thanks to Gala's strategic dexterity. We didn't go anywhere. Gala sewed her own dresses, and I worked a hundred times harder than any mediocre artist."
From a Parisian who found pleasure in the entertainment of 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 coming together piece by piece. When the paintings did not work, Gala forced Dali to study various crafts: to develop models of hats, ashtrays, to decorate store windows, to advertise certain products... You could say that she kept Dali under constant financial and creative pressure. And it is possible that this is exactly the treatment that was needed for a weak-willed and poorly organized person like Salvador Dali. Of course, this did not go unnoticed, and the press often presented Gala as the embodiment of evil, reproaching her for being cruel, greedy and immoral. According to Olano, Gala squandered money left and right and did it very cheerfully, but only when the Dali empire began to flourish 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 the newspaper in the summer of 1994: “The Gala-Dali couple to some extent resembled the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. 
Helpless in everyday life, the extremely sensual artist was captivated by a tough, calculating and desperately upward predator, whom the surrealists dubbed Gala Plague. It was also said about her that her gaze penetrates the walls of bank safes. However, in order to find out the status 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 world-famous “star”. Even before their marriage in 1934, Gala managed to ensure that their house began to besieged by crowds of wealthy collectors who passionately wanted to acquire relics consecrated by the genius of Dali."
Dali and Gala loved to emphasize the brilliance and significance of their public life: this famous, beautiful, extravagant couple has always been the center of attention of photographers and too often became the object of photo hunting.
In 1934, the Dali couple went to the USA - it was an exceptionally correct move, dictated by Gala’s amazing intuition; she definitely felt that it was the Americans who would like and afford Dali’s talent. And she was not mistaken: sensational success awaited Salvador Dali in the United States - the country was gripped by “surrealist fever.” In honor of Dali, surrealist balls with masquerades were held, at which guests appeared in costumes, as if inspired by the artist’s imagination - extravagant, provocative and funny. The couple returned home rich and very famous: America transferred Dali's talent to highest level- into genius. A second trip to the USA in 1939 further strengthened the initial success.
The rapid growth of Dali's popularity overseas was facilitated by two circumstances - his unsurpassed ability to create public scandals and a partial revision of artistic principles, which made the works of the Spanish surrealist more accessible to the general public.
The couple lived in America throughout the war and the first post-war years. With the help of Dali, naturally, Gala organizes exhibitions, gives lectures, paints portraits of wealthy Americans, illustrates books, composes scripts, librettos and costumes for ballet and opera productions, designs windows of luxury stores on Fifth Avenue in New York and pavilions of international fairs, collaborates with Alfred Hitchcock and Walt Disney, tries his hand at photography and organizes surrealist balls. In short, it’s gushing with might and main!..
"Worldwide, writes Dali, - and especially in America, people are burning with desire to know what is the secret of the method by which I was able to achieve such success. But this method really exists. And it is called the “paranoid-critical method.” It has been more than thirty years since I invented it and have been using it with constant success, although to this day I have not been able to understand what this method consists of. 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 tangible creative character to my most dangerous obsessions. This method only works if you have a gentle motor. divine origin, a certain living core, a certain Gala - and she is the only one in the whole world...”
At the end of the 40s, 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 never tired of idolizing his muse. Gala, Gradiva, Galatea, my talisman, my lil, my little one, the olive - that’s just small part names that the painter gave to his muse and wife. Pompous titles and sophisticatedly sensual nicknames formed part of the “surreality” in which the spouses lived. In one of the artist’s paintings, Christopher Columbus, having set foot on 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"
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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 precisely in Gala, and she, in turn, found a son in him (she loved her daughter Cecile less, and it is no coincidence that she was raised by Paula’s grandmother Eluard).
As Dali wrote in his diary:
“Like a mother to a child suffering from lack of appetite, she patiently repeated: “Look, little Dali, what a rare thing I got. Just try, it’s liquid amber, and unburnt at that. They say Vermeer himself wrote with it.”
Sister Gala Lydia, who once visited the couple, noted that she had never in her life seen a more tender and touching attitude of a woman towards a man: “Gala fusses with Dali like a child, reads to him at night, makes him take some necessary pills, sorts out his nightmares with him and with endless patience dispels his suspiciousness. Dali threw a watch at the next visitor - Gala rushes to him with soothing drops “God forbid, he has a seizure.” Could a “woman - the embodiment of evil”, a “greedy Valkyrie”, as journalists called her, hold on like this?
Salvador Dali's father and sister, who strictly professed all the canons of the Catholic faith, could never forgive him for his antics with the portrait of his mother and his marriage to Gala, therefore real family for him became the Italian family of Giuseppe and Mara Albaretto, with whom Dali had a long-term friendship; their daughter Christina became Dali's goddaughter.
Mara Albaretto: “He was extremely eccentric, extravagant. When asked why he depicted his beloved wife Gala with two chops on her back, he answered simply: “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 hint of scandal. There were more than enough people wishing to take part in them. The artist's fame attracted many women to him. Once upon a time they passed by indifferently, 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 artist’s script. Thus, the artist lovingly undressed one Danish lady, and then spent a long time decorating her with lobsters and other sea creatures. In the end it turned out beautiful. Dali was pleased and sweetly said goodbye to the woman. Whether she was satisfied is the question.
The intimate life of the couple remained a secret forever. In all likelihood, there was no such concept as fidelity. For Gala it was an open 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 Gala turned seventy in 1964. She dyed her hair, sometimes 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 came her way. “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 leading actors in the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. They said that it was Gala who caused his break with his young wife, who had just given birth to his child. Gala took an active part in Jeff’s fate, created conditions for him to work and even gave him a gift luxury home on Long Island. This 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, asking her to do the same with hers, so that "to deprive curious descendants of looking into their intimate life" . True, Gala, according to the artist, left an autobiography, which she worked on for 4 years. Gala kept a diary in Russian. It is unknown where these priceless documents are now. Maybe, art world New finds and new discoveries await.
The medieval castle of Pubol (near Porta Lligat) 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 vacationed in the company of fashion model Amanda Lear. However, he tried not to move away from Gala, who wanted silence and monastic peace. Dali was able to visit her only with her written permission.
Gala's last years were poisoned by illness and rapidly approaching senile infirmity. "Day of death, she said, will be the happiest day of my life". It came on June 10, 1982. Gala lived to be 88 years old. Stormy and unique.
Alexey Medvedenko provided the following information for the newspaper "Soviet Culture" from Madrid:
“Dali intended to fulfill his wife’s last wish: to bury her in Pubol, located 80 kilometers from Port Lligat, in a castle that Dali had given to his beloved. However, an ancient Spanish law, issued during the plague, prohibited transporting the body without permission authorities. Dali, for the sake of Gala, goes to break the law. The naked body of the deceased is wrapped in a blanket and placed in the back seat of a Cadillac. The driver, Arturo, gets behind the wheel. They are accompanied by a nurse. They agreed that if they are stopped by the police, they will say that Gala died on the way to the hospital. Dalí's famous Cadillac, a witness to many happy trips to France and Italy, turned into a hearse. A little over an hour later, it delivers the deceased to Pubol. Everything was already prepared there for burial. A coffin with a transparent lid containing Gala's body was buried in the crypt of the castle on June 11 at six o'clock in the evening in the presence of Dali himself..."
78-year-old Dali refused to attend the funeral.
Salvador Dali survived the Gala by 7 years.
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 the artist, about whose expression and eccentricities there were rumors? However, their strong union was destined to exist for 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 Gala’s inspiration, her support and faith in Dali, then Salvador’s genius could have been lost to the World.
Who is Gala?
Gala, with the emphasis on the last letter, as in all French words, her real name is Elena Ivanovna Dyakonova. She was born in 1894, in Kazan, into a poor family. Her father was a minor official who died when the girl was still very young. Mother married a lawyer for the second time. When Elena was 17 years old, the family moved to Moscow. There the girl became a high school student; by the way, she studied together with the future poetess Marina Tsvetaeva.
The childhood of Salvador Dali
Salvador Dali was born in 1904 in the city of Figueres, Spain. His father was an atheist notary, and his mother was an ardent supporter of Catholicism. IN school years his talent as an artist manifested itself in the drawings in the margins of his notebooks. Later, the artist Ramon Piho worked with Dali. Part of the boy walked among 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 flattered himself with hopes that son will go along 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. The girl is sent to Switzerland for treatment, where in a sanatorium there was a fatal acquaintance with the poet from France Eugene-Emile-Paul-Grendel, this is the future Paul Eluard. Paul's parents sent him 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, trying their best to dissuade Paul from any connection with the “Russian girl.” But it was no use. The flame had already flared up, despite the fact that the lovers had to part for a while, they constantly sent each other letters. Even then, in the letters, a bright maternal principle can be traced in Elena (it was during this period that she decided to rename herself Gala, which means “holiday”, “fun”). She often refers to the field as “boy”, “darling”.
Wedding of Gala and Paul Eluard
Passionate romance Gala and Paula 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 consolidation of marriage bonds, a daughter, Cecile, was born into their family. Despite this event, which was so joyful for both, their union did not promise happiness. Eluard could not sit still, often traveled, and sometimes became eccentric. Scandals became commonplace in the house. For example, the poet could easily show nude photographs to his friends. Gala was both Paul's muse and irritant. Soon she entered extramarital affairs with 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 Cadaques to visit the young artist Salvador Dali. This idea belonged to Paul, he was shocked by Dali’s film “Un Chien Andalou”. At the time of the fateful meeting, Gala was 35 years old, she was a self-possessed woman who had gained solid life experience, and Salvador Dali had recently turned 25 years old.
All the way to the village, Eluard praised Dali's work. Before the guests arrived, Salvador dressed up specially for the meeting: he painted his armpits in Blue colour, sprayed 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 Eluard family. However, by chance his gaze fell on Paul’s wife. He saw her from the window of his house. Dali appeared before the guests in his normal appearance, but speechless. Then he felt that this woman would be his real one and only love all my life.
A fruitful creative union: Gala and Salvador Dali
Galla's contemporaries noted that she was not a beauty, but there was something about her that was attractive to many men: severity, mystery, magnetism... As Gala admits later, from the first glance at Dali, she realized that in front of her was a genius.
So Gala accepted, perhaps, one of major decisions in his life: to leave his wife and daughter and devote his life to a young artist. Without regard to the wealth of the husband and the poverty of the artist.
Only after the death of Eluard, 29 years after the meeting, the couple officially sealed their bonds with marriage.
Their union was like a union of ice and fire: the strict, calculating Gala and the timid Dali. Rumor has it that before marriage he was a virgin and was terrified of any contact with the female sex.
Nevertheless, Gala's enormous influence on Dali bore fruit: the artist left the influence of Breton and his group and became independent. He worked a lot, his beloved was not just his muse, but also his producer, art director, and marketer: she herself created exhibitions of works, constantly looked for wealthy sponsors and negotiated with them, and was engaged in the sale of paintings.
Gradually, information began to leak into the press that Dali was working under pressure from Gala, allegedly she forced him to create paintings, and when the paintings did not come out of the brush, she put him in charge of developing new accessories and interior items. Perhaps this is how it was necessary to treat the weak-willed and fearful Salvador.
In 1994, an article was published where the journalist called Galla a predator, who took with a cruel and strong grip a defenseless and weak-willed artist with some talent and on her own made him a millionaire and a “star”, for the opportunity to own whose works crowds of rich people and moneybags lined up. .
Gala herself was in seventh heaven. She wasted money left and right.
Travel to the USA: the peak of Salvador Dali's popularity
Galla's intuition brought the couple to the USA, where it seemed the public was just waiting for their arrival. In 1934, artistic canons were just being revised, and the elite were bored in anticipation of scandals and shocking events. America presented them with a dizzying reception: Dali’s works were sold out for fabulous sums, and noisy parties were held in their honor. This trip only added fame and money to the couple.
Years of war and several post-war years Gala and Dali lived in the USA; the artist’s popularity, thanks to Gala’s actions, was at its peak. The genius created and created his masterpieces.
Gala phenomenon
“Galatea”, “my talisman”, “my treasure”, “my little treasure” - this is how Dali wrote about his wife. Her image can be found in many paintings, even in the face of the Mother of God. The artist has said more than once that he loves her more than anything in the world - more than money, fame, even more than his mother. Or rather, instead of a mother. The artist lost his mother early, and Gala managed to give him maternal care and love, which the man so badly lacked.
Those close to the couple, in particular, Gala’s sister, having come to visit them, more than once spoke about Gala’s motherly behavior towards Salvador: she cleaned up after him, brought him drinks and food, deified him, and 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 and was not only its muse, but also a skillful manager and financier. She managed to convince Dali of his exclusivity, uniqueness and genius, and the artist, in response, was ready to present Gala with the whole world.
Fighting against time
The couple Dali and Gala, which many people called “schizophrenics”, “crazy” “perverts”. Gradually Gala grew old. In senseless attempts to somehow retain her youth, Gala kept going under the scalpel plastic surgeon, then took “magic” pills to preserve youth, then went on diets. Luxury, fame, wealth - all this gave a woman the opportunity to keep younger lovers close to her. One of them was Jeff Fenholt - main actor rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar". But this was not enough for her. One day Gala turned to Salvador with a request to buy her a castle in Pubol. There a woman organized orgies, but Dali was very into them a rare guest. He was allowed entry only with her written invitation.
At the end of life
In 1982, as a result of a fall, Gala broke her hip. She was placed in a hospital, where her mind gradually abandoned her. The artist's muse died alone, forgotten by her many lovers, on whom she so carefreely and generously spent money.
Dali, having learned about this, went against the law (in those days it was impossible to independently transport the bodies of the dead) - he put it on at the Gala favorite dress, large sunglasses, put him in a Cadillac and drove him to the castle in Pubol, where his muse 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 off. He never returned to the canvas, as if his gift had left him. The artist seemed to be going crazy, lost interest in life, ate little, behaved aggressively, rushed at his interlocutors, and instead of normal speech, he mooed, which no one could understand. He spent the remaining seven years in this mode.
Conclusion:
Largely thanks to the Gala, the world learned about Salvador Dali. She was his wife, mother, friend all rolled into one. As Dali himself admitted many times, he owes everything he has entirely to “his Gala.”
Film "Salvador Dali and Gala"
On 11/27/2017 11/30/2018
A short biography of the wife of Salvador Dali - the well-known Gala, dissolute, but smart and calculating. Gala left a memory of herself as one of the best art agents in history, and her sex life still continues to shock.
Salvador Dali with his wife Gala.
However, given the master’s complexes in relationships with women, his mistresses, if there were any (who knows), were certainly not as numerous as his wife’s lovers. Salvador, however, was mostly content with voyeurism and splashed out his sexuality mainly in paintings. Gala did the same, but only choosing men as her target.
So, there was an unspoken agreement between Gala and Salvador - he turned a blind eye to her string of young stallions, and she turned a blind eye to his orgies. So it goes.
Salvador Dali's wife, old age Gala.
Salvador Dali's wife, Gala's contribution to Salvador's success.
Gala created Dali and she destroyed him. Gala created Dali in the sense that when they met, he was unknown to anyone (but this is a lie and a provocation - this is not entirely true. Maybe for America Catalonia is a nobody, but in Catalonia, by that time Dali was already quite famous ). And like many geniuses, Dali could not function normally in this world. He could not call (Salvadorich, as I understand you!!!), he could not distinguish the denominations of banknotes. I once saw Dali pay a taxi driver $100 without even knowing what he was doing. (c) Ultraviolet
Rumors and unverified information about Salvador Dali's wife, Gala.
Gala is credited with the phrase “What a pity that my anatomy does not allow me to have sex with five men at the same time.”
Dali, Gala, Paul Eluard - was there group sex or not? Nobody really knows, but most likely not. Although Paul was known for his fantasies (and not only fantasies) on the topic of group sex - and I didn’t just pull this out of thin air, he directly spoke about this in correspondence with Gala. But considering that when Gala started a relationship with Salvador Dali, she categorically refused her husband, I doubt the possibility of such an event.
They say that shortly before Gala's death, she quarreled with Salvador and he beat her with a cane.
On January 30, 1934, an ordinary event occurred - two adults got married. Perhaps their names may seem unusual. Groom - Salvador Domenech Felip Jacinth Dali. Bride - Elena Ivanovna Dyakonova, in future - Gala Dali. But, despite the star quality of the heroes, this wedding can not be called either unique or epoch-making. Because they got married about 50 times.
The characters in all ceremonies will remain the same. Only cities and countries will change. It’s a matter of taste - when visiting a foreign country, some people go to a museum, others go shopping, but this couple was heading to church. Not because of such piety, but to confirm their marital status. Or to give yourself an extra honeymoon? Or to create an atmosphere of ongoing scandal? You can choose any version, and even add your own.
In rabbit mode
In creating myths about their lives, this couple can give anyone a head start. Both together and separately. Let's say, Elena Ivanovna easily called herself Elena Dmitrievna. Well, just for fun. Her mother remarried—that’s her new patronymic. And in addition, speculation about who real father— Kazan official Ivan Dyakonov or still a Moscow lawyer Dmitry Gomberg, who fell ill from worries when Lenochka was diagnosed with consumption.
"Gala in the Window", sculpture by Salvador Dali. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Manuel González Olaechea y Franco
Little Salvador is not far behind, seriously considering himself the reincarnation of his older brother, who died of meningitis in infancy. And he starts bloody fights at school - most often for no reason. In more mature age declaring that he “spits on his mother.” And when he was very mature, he said: “I love Gala more than my mother, more than my father, more Picasso and even more money."
But then came 1929. Cadequés, Spain, Catalonia. Meeting. Evening. Olives and the moon. Elena is 11 years older than Salvador. And her words: “My baby, I will never leave you.” Since then, even the most notorious anarchists and art fighters have declared: “Dali and Gala are not husband and wife. And certainly not the artist and his muse. They are two hemispheres of one brain." From now on, the two hemispheres acted synchronously. And together.
So synchronized that it’s time to believe in the metaphysical kinship of the Russian and Spanish souls. No, in fact, both we and they at one time resisted the onslaught of an alien world - the Horde and the Caliphate. Both we and they succeeded as nations in this monstrous, cruel struggle.
And here is the result. In 1929, the still little-known Salvador Dali, together with director Luis Buñuel, shot the later famous film “Un Chien Andalusian.” The apotheosis of cruelty - in this movie, the eye of a sleeping girl is cut with a razor. And we see how it flows out. And many years later, when Gala and Salvador were already married and rich, kind fluffy rabbits were brought into their house, in which Dali doted on them. But the brilliant husband accidentally uttered a daring word to his wife. And then, at the insistence of the Russian wife, these rabbits were killed, skinned, fried and served to the family table.
Compared to this, all their many scandalous orgies, all their changes of lovers and mistresses seem something insignificant. Unimportant. But there were many such cases. No wonder Salvador said: “I allow my Gala to have as many lovers as she wants.”
Pubol Castle, given by Dalí to his wife. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Irina O. Klubkova
Cheek lollipop
Scandalous lying in bed John Lennon And Yoko Ono naked against this background they seem like children playing in a sandbox. As well as the “free love” proclaimed by the hippie generation. Already tired of numerous threesome orgies with Dali and her first husband, a poet Paul Eluard, as well as the four of them, with the artist Max Ernst invited to the warm company, Gala said: “It’s a pity that my anatomy does not allow me to make love with five men at once!”
Compared to this, even the furies of punks can be considered a pale repetition of the past - evidence of this is Dali’s painting “The Great Masturbator”.
Painting by Salvador Dali “The Great Masturbator”, 1929.
Gala Dali was called a “greedy Valkyrie”, “greedy Russian slut”. And she, when Dali’s paintings fell in price, personally ran around the shops and galleries: “Buy our inventions! In less than a year, you will rise thanks to this genius!”
She was sent far and long with her genius husband. But the inventions were not bad. Transparent mannequins on display. Fake nails. Artificial breasts. Streamlined car body shapes...
In those same years, something similar was proposed by the bogeyman of the current civilization - Adolf Schicklgruber, later known as Hitler. In new ones, modern forms“Mercedes” and “Volkswagen” contain the ideas of two crazy artists - a Spaniard and an Austrian. Dali and Hitler. Only Salvador was lucky - he got a crazy Russian wife just like him. But the other one doesn’t.
Dali, unlike Adolf, was destined for a different fate. He didn't kill children. But he gave them the famous logo of a caramel on a stick, which was developed in a few seconds by the author of “Atomic Crucifixion”. Yes, the lollipop wrapper was invented by Salvador Dali. By the way, he received a very interesting reward for this. Every day a bucket of sweets was sent to him from the factory. The genius went to the playground, unwrapped the caramel, licked it and threw it into the sand. In front of drooling children. And so on until the supply runs out.
Salvador Dali in 1959.
And what about his Gala? She died. But a year before her death, a heartbreaking family scene occurred. In February 1981, Dali's secretary heard cries for help. Dali's bloodied wife was found in the artist's office. It turned out that the couple had quarreled. And the genius “beat her a little with his cane.”
One can’t help but remember the words of Salvador himself: “It’s not worth loving a woman with all your soul. But it’s impossible not to love.” Correction - only Russian woman.
Russian muse
Maria Zakrevskaya-Benckendorff-Budberg. For 13 years she was the writer's unmarried wife H.G. Wells: “She captivated me with her magnetism,” he admitted.
Maria Kudasheva. Became a wife Romain Rolland, laureate Nobel Prize on literature. Until his death, she wrote his works from dictation.
Princess Olga Chegodaeva And " chess king» Jose Raul Capablanca We have been married for 12 years. At diplomatic receptions they were considered the most spectacular couple.
Hungarian composer Imre Kalman married a Russian Amy Grant Vera Makinskaya and dedicated the operetta “The Violet of Montmartre” to her.
35 years ago, on June 10, 1982, a woman passed away, whose name went down in art history thanks to Salvador Dali, whose wife and muse she was for many years. She managed to become for him at the same time a mother, lover and friend, absolutely irreplaceable and adored. But Dali was far from the only man for her. Gala she never denied herself her desires and forced the artist to indulge all her whims.
Elena Dyakonova (that was her real name) left Russia in 1912. She fell ill with consumption and was sent for treatment to a Swiss sanatorium, where she met the French poet Eugene Grendel. He lost his head over her and decided to get married, against the will of his parents, who considered this marriage a misalliance. He dedicated poems to her and published them on her advice under the sonorous pseudonym Paul Eluard. He called it Gala - “holiday”.
Gala already had clear ideas about how she wanted to see her future in France. “I will shine like a cocotte, smell like perfume and always have well-groomed hands with manicured nails.” And although, according to contemporaries, she was not beautiful even in her youth, she knew how to make a splash in society. This was due to his unshakable confidence in himself and his charms, as well as his ability to intrigue the public. She appeared in a Chanel suit with a deck of cards in her purse and, declaring herself a medium, began to predict the future. The men called her “the witch Slav” and reacted to her as if they were really under the influence of magic.
The German artist and sculptor Max Ernst could not resist her charms. Gala not only did not hide the affair from her husband, but also convinced him of the need to live together. She always preached the ideas of free love, and considered jealousy a stupid prejudice.
At the time of her acquaintance with the young artist Salvador Dali, she was 36 years old. He was 11 years younger, had never entered into intimate relationships with women and was terribly afraid of them. Gala awakened feelings in him that he had not experienced before. According to him, it not only aroused passion, but also fueled creativity. He called her “the demoness of my genius.”
Gala not only gave a powerful charge of inspiration to the artist, but was also his manager, the creator of the Dali “brand”. Among her acquaintances there were many influential and wealthy people, to whom she offered to invest money in her husband’s work. He signed the paintings “Gala-Salvador-Dali”, no longer imagining his existence without his muse, and she convinced him: “Soon you will be the way I want to see you, my boy.”
However, not everyone shared the artist’s admiration. The press wrote about him and his muse: “Helpless in everyday life, the extremely sensual artist was captivated by a tough, calculating and desperately striving predator, whom the surrealists dubbed Gala Plague.” She was called a “greedy Valkyrie” and a “greedy Russian whore.”
Gala never denied herself pleasure, to which her husband reacted calmly: “I allow Gala to have as many lovers as she wants. I even encourage it because it excites me.” And she declared: “It’s a pity that my anatomy does not allow me to make love with five men at once.” And the older she got, the younger her lovers were, and the greater their number.
They said that “her boys were worth a fortune” - she showered them with money and gifts, bought them houses and cars. One day, one of them, Eric Samon, was having dinner with her at a restaurant, and at that time his accomplices were trying to steal her car. But 22-year-old William Rothlein, whom Gala helped get rid of drug addiction, really was in love with her. But after he failed Fellini’s acting audition, her passion immediately faded. And William soon died from a drug overdose. Singer Jeff Fenholt, who performed the main role in the rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar,” received a $1.25 million house and Dali paintings as a gift from his mistress, and then denied any connection with her.
When she felt old age approaching, she asked Dali to buy for her medieval castle in Pubol, where she organized real orgies. And the husband was allowed to appear there only with a special written invitation. And even this, he admitted, he liked: “This condition flattered my masochistic inclinations and brought me into complete delight. Gala turned into an impregnable fortress, as it always was. Close proximity and, especially, familiarity can extinguish any passion. Restraint of feelings and distance, as the neurotic ritual of knightly love shows, enhance passion.”
The artist loved his muse until the end of his days, although he often appeared in public with other women: .
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