Salvador Dali was a brilliant artist who painted amazing surreal paintings. Gala Dali's wife had a great influence on his work and for half a century was his muse.
Gala Dali and her life before meeting a genius
Gala Dali became famous thanks to her brilliant artist husband. He idolized her and considered her his muse. The real name of Salvador Dali's wife is Elena Dyakonova. She was born in Kazan in 1894. Her parents divorced, after which Elena's mother got married a second time and the family moved to Moscow. Elena was a very sickly child. When she turned 19, her parents sent her to Switzerland to receive treatment for tuberculosis. The French poet Eugene-Emile-Paul Grandel was resting at the sanatorium. He really fell in love with a girl from Russia. But the relationship did not work out right away. The boy's father was a major real estate dealer, a respected person. He did not want to accept his son's new love.
The wedding of Elena and the French poet took place only a few years later, during which they actively corresponded. At that time, her lover was already known as Paul Eluard. The poet gave his wife a different name - Gala (with an emphasis on the last syllable). In his native language, it means "holiday". Gala Dali was an extraordinary woman. Her contemporaries said that she was not distinguished by her beauty even in her youth, but amazing magnetism emanated from her. Gala knew how to make a splash in society and interest any man. Even before meeting her first husband, she decided that she would never work hard and her destiny - "like a cocotte to shine, smell of perfume and always have well-groomed hands with manicured nails."
A year after the wedding, Gala gave birth to her husband's daughter Cecile. Soon, family life bored her. She was interested in the German sculptor Max Ernst. She not only did not try to hide the new romance from her husband, but also convinced him to live in three. The love triangle has existed for several years.
Acquaintance with Salvador Dali
At the time of meeting with Salvador Dali, Gala was already an adult woman. She was 36 years old, and El Salvador was only 25 years old. The acquaintance took place in the artist's house. Gala arrived there with her husband. Dali was fascinated by a new acquaintance after the first meeting. The novel developed rapidly. The legal husband knew about his wife's relationship with the Spanish artist, but did not want to share his muse with him. He felt that this passion was very serious. When Gala faced a choice, she left her husband and daughter and went to Dali.
The Spanish artist recalled that she not only aroused passion, but also fueled creativity. He called her "the demoness of genius." Before meeting her, he did not meet with women, did not enter into intimate relationships with them, and was very notorious. With his beloved, he felt like a real man.
This couple was strange in every way. Gala not only inspired the artist, but also posed for him, was his muse and at the same time his manager. Gala found rich and influential people and invited them to invest in the work of Salvador Dali. Many relatives of the artist were not delighted with his choice and believed that the sensual and helpless in everyday life, Salvador fell under the influence of a calculating, insidious woman. When El Salvador's paintings were not on sale, she advised him to make statuettes and paint bizarre vases. Gala persuaded the artist to move to the USA. There, incredible success and fame awaited him. When Dali achieved everything he wanted, he and his beloved returned to Europe.
Dali got married to his muse only 29 years after the first meeting. The wedding was secret and even relatives were not invited to it. It took place in 1958 after the death of Elena Dyakonova's first husband.
The last years of the life of the muse
Gala was not loyal to Salvador Dali and did not try to hide it. The brilliant artist treated this normally and said that his wife can have as many lovers as she wants. The older Gala got, the younger her men were. She did not skimp on expensive gifts and presented lovers with cars, luxury real estate.
When Gala felt the approach of old age, she persuaded her husband to buy for her a chic castle in Pubol. In it, she arranged real orgies, and the artist himself could appear there only by an official invitation. During the last years of her life, Gala was very sick. She fell unsuccessfully and broke her hip. There were other health problems as well. She died in 1982 at the age of 88.
Gala bequeathed to bury herself in Pubol, but died in a hospital that was far from the castle. In those years, there was a ban on the transportation of dead people due to the danger of a plague epidemic. For the sake of his beloved, Salvador Dali violated the ban and secretly transported her body to the family crypt in his car. The artist survived his muse for 7 years and, according to him, these were the most painful years of his life.
