Salvador Dali: ‘Leda Atomica’ (1949)
On meeting Gala in 1929, Dalí fell head over heels in love with her. The view of the proud and somewhat tense face of this Russian woman, ten years his senior, immediately reduced him to a state of adoration. In that first instant, he was dazed, sure he had met the woman. He at once began to court her assiduously. At the time, Gala was involved in a triangular relationship with Paul Eluard, her husband, and Max Ernst, her lover. She made up her mind to initiate Dalí into the ways of love, and they married three years later, leaving Eluard to his despair. Becoming Dali's muse and unique model, her beauty is sublimated in paintings in which she is elevated to the status of a goddess or mythical figure, as in this work, where she appears in the guise of Leda, one of Jupiter's conquests. According to Ovid, the king of Olympus took the form of a swan and seduced the girl on her wedding night. This union resulted in both Helen and Clytemnestra, and Castor and Pollux, all four emerging from a pair of eges laid by Leda.
