Dues figures (Two Figures)

In April 1926 Salvador Dalí went to Paris for the first time. As he himself admits, he was profoundly affected by visits to two museums (Versailles and the Musée Grévin) and particularly by his meeting with Picasso, who he met through Manuel Ángeles Ortiz. But Picasso’s influence had already been making itself felt in his paintings for some time. While the Cubism of Juan Gris had set the tone for him to follow in some of his previous paintings, the works done by Picasso in 1924-1925, specifically with reference to the Synthetic Cubism of the time, were a clear reference for Dalí, something confirmed by a study of Dues figures (Two Figures). This still life, perhaps due precisely to that first actual contact between Dalí and Picasso, shows a clear parallel with Picasso’s Instruments de musique sur une table (Musical Instruments on a Table), from summer 1924 – also in the Museo Reina Sofía collection. Although the motifs are different (objects in Picasso’s work, figures in Dalí’s), both compositions use a similar arrangement of volumes in the pictorial space. The formats are similar and the muted colours (ochres for Dalí’s figures, bluish-greys and blacks for Picasso’s musical instruments) cannot help but remind the viewer in both cases of the typical colour range of Cubism.

Paloma Esteban Leal