Gala Dalí (the artist's wife)
Cécile Eluard, Paris (inherited from the above)
Beadleston Gallery, New York (sold: Sotheby's, London, December 4, 2000, lot 18)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden & Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Dalí's Optical Illusions, 2000, no. 24, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Rio de Janeiro, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Surrealism, 2001

William Rubin, Dada and Surrealist Art, New York, 1968, no. 203, illustrati💧o൲n of another cast p. 234

Max Gérard (ed.), Dalí,🌟 New York, 1968, no. 🌃148, illustration of the plaster

Dalí (exhibition catalogue), Museum Boyma🥃ns-van-Beuningen, Rotterdam, 💟1970, no. 188, illustration of another cast

Sarane Alexandrian, Dalí, Paris, 1974, illustration of anot♚her cast p. 9

Salvador Dalí Rétrospective (exhibition catalogue), Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1979,🦹 no. 175, illustrat🎉ion of another cast p. 233

Salvador Dalí (exhibition cat🥂alogue), Tate Gallery, London, 1980, no. 120, illustration of anotherꦡ cast

Patrick Waldberg, Michel Sanouillet & Robert Lebel, Dada Surréalisme, 🌱Paris, 1981, illu😼stration of another cast in color p. 253

Robert Descharnes, Dalí, L'oeuvre et l'homme, Lausanne, 1984, il💦lustration of the plaster in co🎃lor p. 199

Salvador Dalí Retrospektive (exhibition ꦺcatalogue), Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart & Kunsthaus, Zürich, 1989, no. 158, illustration of another cast🎃 p. 206

Robert Descharnes & Gilles Néret, Salvador Dalí, L'oeuvre peint, 1904-1946, vol. I, Cologne, 1993, no. 628, illustration of another cast in col🏅or p. 279

Bronze, painted white. The surface is slightly dirty and there is some minor paint loss to the top-edge of the drawer in the figure's knee. The drawers are removable and temporarily held in place by wax for the purposes of transport.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The first version of this work was created in 1936 when Dalí modified a plaster copy of the Vénus de Milo incorporating six drawers. As a child, Dalí had made a terracotta copy of the Vénus de Milo (2nd Century B.C., Musée du Louvre, Paris) and recalled:  "My first experience as a sculptor gave me an unknown and delicious erotic joy" (quoted in Salvador Dalí Retrospektive (ex. cat.), op. cit., p. 206).

 

In this work, Dalí painted the bronze in white, tricking the viewer into believing that the sculpture is made of white marble.  Dalí appointed Marcel Duchamp as the technical advisor to supervise the design of the drawers at the foundry.   The same theme of the Vénus de Milo with drawers appears in several drawings and a painting of 1936, Cabinet anthropomorphique (Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf; Descharnes & Néret, no. 624).  Dalí explained: "The only difference between immortal Greece and the contemporary era is Sigmund Freud, who discovered that the human body, which was purely neo-platonic at the time of the Greeks, is now full of secret drawers that only psychoanalysis is able to open."  He added: "It is necessary to put all the drawers into a body that is large enough and has not yet known the Christian invention of remorse of conscience. This sculpture can cure us of psychoanalysis" (R. Descharnes & G. Néret, op. cit., p. 276).