Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali, the talented surrealist painter was born May 11, 1904 in Figueras, Spain. He was the second of three children in his family. His parents believed him to be the reincarnation of his older brother who had died just nine months before Salvador was born. Dali said later in life that he often felt like he and his dead brother were one when he painted. His parents were very indulgent through out his childhood, Dali often dressed up and pretended to be an emperor and rule his family. Even when his younger sister Anna Maria was born, Dali maintained his position as the "dictator" of the family.

Though Dali was an unruly student, many people recognized his brilliance and artistic talent at a very young age. He began seriously painting at age ten, though his more notable works did not appear until he was thirteen. Most of these early paintings were landscapes of the areas surrounding his hometown, Figueras and nearby Cadaquese. Later, he began to use the Roman ruins in Ampurius which he developed a strong love for and are a recurrent theme in many of his later pieces.

A year after Dali's mother died in 1921, Dali was accepted to the Acadamia de San Fernando in Madrid. This was and art school that specialized in painting, sculpture, and engraving. Dali had mastered Impressionism several years earlier and was now experimenting with cubism. This impressed his classmates, most of who were just beginning to grasp Impressionism. Dali became a prominent figure in the elite Spanish intellectual artists as a result.

In 1928, Dali finally began to become noticed throughout the world. His "photo-realistic" oil painting Basket of Bread was put on display at the Carnegie International Exposition in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. In 1929 Dali married Gala Eluard, had his first one-man-show at Goeman's Gallery in Paris, and joined the Paris Surrealists. It was a highly successful year for