Salvador Dalí

Acquired directly from the artist through Carstairs Gallery, New York, in 1965
Thence by descent to the present owner 

Very good condition. Canvas is unlined. Work is on a new stretcher. Canvas is buckling slightly in the upper right. Under UV, some very thin hairline cracks have been retouched in the upper right corner in a 3 by 2 inch area. Some other small cracks have been retouched in cloud at upper right. Three other cracks (each under 1 inch in length) in upper center sky have also been addressed and a few other pin-dots elsewhere. A few original pigments fluoresce, but no other inpainting is evident. Surface retains a rich layer of impasto.
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 current portrait offers a brilliant illustration of Dalí's artistic preoccupations during the 1960s and 70s. The artist's post-War works were outstandingly individual and society portraiture occupies an important position in his later oeuvre. The subject of this monumental portrait is the collector of international acclaim and an important patron of the arts, Mrs. São Schlumberger. Descended from Portuguese and German lineage, Mrs. Schlumberger married prominent President of Schlumberger, Ltd., Pierre Schlumberger in 1961 in Houston, Texas. Shortly after their marriage, Dalí was commissioned to paint Mrs. Schlumberger. Mrs. Schlumberger sat for the artist several times between 1963 and 1965 and personally picked out the Givenchy gown in which she is depicted. The necklace which she wears in the photograph below (fig. 1) was created by Dalí around the same time that he painted her portrait. 

Mr. and Mrs. Schlumberger lived on Sutton Place in New York City and became prominent patrons of the Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center as well as friends of a circle of artists including Andy Warhol. They also donated graciously to the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston with notable emphasis on the acquisition of works by Piet Mondrian, Alexander Calder and others. In the decades following their marriage, they amassed an astounding and well-crafted collection of art and antiques. The current work commanded an important position in this masterful collection.  

After World War II, Dalí consciously disassociated himself from the Surrealists and developed an individual style that is unmistakably unique in the canon of 20th century art. Though his Surrealist tendencies are certainly present in these later works, as in the background landscape of the current work, Dalí focused his artistic concerns away from abstraction towards a return to the techniques of the Old Masters. He effectively fused the avant-garde trends of Surrealism with an eloquence of artistic execution. The formality and naturalistic attention to detail in his portrait of Mrs. Schlumberger, for example, is offset by the fantastical dreamscape that surrounds her. Dalí described his effort to refute the tendencies toward abstraction that dominated Modern art in The Secret Life of Dalí: "The whole modern effort that had been accomplished during the Post-War period was false, and would have to be destroyed. Inescapably there must be a return to tradition in painting and in everything. Otherwise spiritual activity would quickly become nothingness. No one knew how to draw any more, or how to paint, or how to write... The empty and pseudo-philosophic gossip of café tables was increasingly encroaching upon honest work in studio and workshop. And the goddesses of inspiration, instead of continuing to occupy their Parnassus imagined and painted by Raphael and Poussin, were expected to come down into the street and ply the sidewalk trade and give themselves over to the libertinism of all the more or less popular assemblages" (Salvador Dalí, The Secret Life of Salvador Dalí, Plymouth, Great Britain, 1948, p. 285).

 

Figure 1 Photograph of the sitter, Mme Schlumberger, in her Sutton Place apartment, circa 1964