‘Salvador Dalí’ in <A Tale of Pure Love>; ‘Gala’, the lover of boundless desire
In the summer of 1929, on the dazzling beaches of Cadaqués, Spain, Salvador Dalí met the woman who would turn his life upside down. Her name was
woman was Elena Ivanovna Diakonova—known to us as ‘Gala’—a Russian by birth. Although she was married to the French poet Paul Éluard at the time, she was swayed by Dalí’s ardent courtship, and the couple eventually caused a sensation by suddenly vanishing in the middle of an exhibition in Paris.
When they were officially married in 1934, Gala was 40 and Dalí was 30.
Dali’s heaven and earth, his absolute ruler
To Dalí, Gala was far more than simply a wife. She was his heaven and earth, and the sole key to unlocking his creative realm. Dalí confessed that Gala could not help but feature in all his works, and he extolled her as the Virgin Mary embodying the perfection of the Renaissance, or as a ‘female Zeus’.
In fact, as Dalí’s manager, Gala took charge of all business matters—including exhibition contracts and the sale of works—and exercised complete control over his life. It would be no exaggeration to say that all of Dalí’s glory was, in effect, brought to fruition by Gala’s hand.
A love that went astray and a solitude trapped within the castle
However, unlike Dalí’s blind, devoted love, Gala’s affections were always directed elsewhere.
Just as she had once enjoyed an unconventional love triangle, oscillating between her former husband Éluard and the painter Max Ernst, she continued to have affairs with younger men even in her old age, leaving Dalí alone. Dali even went so far as to buy a castle and offer it to her in an attempt to win back her waning affections, but Gala imposed the harsh condition that he must not set foot in the castle without her permission.
Dalí, the master of Surrealism who had dominated the art world of his time, found himself in the miserable position of having to submit a written request for permission in advance simply to see his wife.
A tragic final years marred by drugs and violence
Alienated from Gala, Dalí suffered from severe nervous exhaustion and depression.
Around 1980, when the 86-year-old Gala began an affair with the musical theatre actor Jeff Penholt, a man a staggering 57 years her junior, Dalí’s patience snapped and he assaulted her, breaking her ribs in a tragic incident.
The excessive medication prescribed to calm the agitated Dalí actually plunged him into a quagmire of dementia and psychosis, whilst Gala abandoned him, spending vast sums of money to keep her young lover by her side.
The Master’s Lonely Death
In 1982, when Gala passed away at the age of 88, Dalí lost all will to live.
In stark contrast to Picasso, who lived as a womaniser, this protagonist of an extraordinary, devoted love story—who clung to only one woman—passed away in 1989. His remains are currently interred in the crypt beneath the Dalí Museum in his hometown of Figueres. Did he, in his grave, finally achieve the complete reunion with Gala that he had so longed for?
