Dali Planet #12: What the comet saw
In Dali’s youth his family had a summer home in Cadaques, along the Platja LLane, perhaps at the foot of what is now Drecera de Dali. The photo comes from VirTourist.com and the painting here is “The Artist’s Father at Llana Beach”, from 1920.
In 1907 Dali’s sister Ana Maria was born. Seen below in his 1924 portrait, she would be almost the only female model in his paintings until he met his wife Gala in 1929. In 1949 Anna published a memoir, “Dali as Seen by His Sister”.
Dali recalled the excitement in the household when Halley’s comet appeared in 1910. “While crossing the hall I caught sight of my little three-year-old sister crawling unobtrusively through a doorway. I stopped, hesitated a second, then gave her a terrible kick in the head as though it had been a ball, and continued running, carried away with a ‘delirious joy’ induced by this savage act.”
That same year he entered the Immaculate Conception primary school, run by the Brothers of the Marist Order, who taught him to speak French.
