PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT WEST COAST COLLECTION
Lot 16A
SALVADOR DALÍ(1904-1989)The Maids-in-Waiting (Las Meninas; B)
14 May 2025, 17:00 EDT
New YorkUS$200,000 - US$300,000
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SALVADOR DALÍ (1904-1989)
The Maids-in-Waiting (Las Meninas; B)
signed and dated 'Dalí 1960' (upper right)
oil on canvas
7 1/4 x 5 1/2 in (18.5 x 14 cm)
Painted in 1960
signed and dated 'Dalí 1960' (upper right)
oil on canvas
7 1/4 x 5 1/2 in (18.5 x 14 cm)
Painted in 1960
Footnotes
Provenance
Richard L. Feigen Gallery, New York.
Carstairs Gallery, New York.
Julien Levy Collection, New York, by 1965; his sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, November 4, 1981, lot 33.
Private collection, Germany (acquired at the above sale); their sale, Sotheby's, London, June 28, 2000, lot 214.
Sale: Christie's, New York, May 9, 2013, lot 321.
Acquired at the above sale by the late owner.
Exhibited
New York, Gallery of Modern Art, Salvador Dalí 1910-1965, December 18, 1965 - February 28, 1966, no. 158.
Paris, Centre Pompidou, Dalí, November 21, 2012 - March 25, 2013 (later traveled to Madrid).
Literature
M. Gérard (ed.), Dalí, Paris, 1968, no. 136a (illustrated; incorrectly titled 'Las Meninas A').
K. Maur, Salvador Dali 1904-1989, exh. cat., Stuttgart, 1989, p. 356 (illustrated).
R. Descharnes & G. Néret, Salvador Dalí 1904-1989, vol. II, The Paintings 1946-1989, Cologne, 1997, no. 1175 (illustrated p. 526).
The present work, painted in 1960 by Salvador Dalí, is the second in a pair of works that reimagine Las Meninas (1656), the hallmark masterpiece by Diego Velázquez. Dalí, fiercely proud of his Spanish heritage, revered the Baroque Old Master, writing at fifteen years old that: "Velázquez must be considered as one of the greatest, perhaps indeed the greatest, of Spanish painters, and furthermore as one of the foremost artists the world has ever seen" (quoted in R. Descharnes, Dalí. The Paintings, Cologne, 1994, p. 26). Much of Dalí's work can be seen as an homage to Velázquez, which fit well within Dalí's larger ethos of integrating discoveries and experiences of the modern world into the classical tradition of the great Old Masters he so deeply admired.
The Maids-in-Waiting (Las Meninas; B) reimagines Velázquez's iconic original in simplified pictorial terms. While Dalí retains the original forms of each figure, his sharp outlining of various contours within the courtiers' dress lends a geometric element to the scene's figuration. When considered in the context of this work's pendant piece, the geometric elements of the present work strike up an interesting dialogue with its partner The Maids-in-Waiting (Las Meninas; A). In that version, the first within the pair, Dalí entirely replaces the figures with fanciful, ornate numbers. In the present work, Dalí appears to explore the figures' physicality as a numerical shape. This is most evident in the outline of the ladies-in-waiting flanking the Infanta Margarita Teresa. The kneeling figure at left, María Agustina Sarmiento de Sotomayor, adopts the slope of the number 5, while the standing form of Isabel de Velasco on the right takes on the stiff outline of the number 4. Featured prominently in the composition's center, the object of everyone's devotion, the Infanta's outlined form takes on the rounded slopes of an elegant figure eight.
