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Philippe Halsman
In Voluptate Mors, Salvador Dali's portrait, 1951

1981

About the Item

Philippe Halsman (1906-1979) In Voluptate Mors, portrait of Salvador Dali, 1951 Silver print, 1981 Stamp "Halsman/Dali copyright Philippe Halsman © 81", numbered 66/250 Dimensions of the work : 31 x 25,7 cm Dimensions of the frame : 50 x 40 cm Born in Riga in 1906, Philippe Halsman moved to Paris in the 1930s, where he set up as a photographer in the Montparnasse district. He produced portraits of artists and intellectuals of the day, including Le Corbusier, André Malraux and André Gide. In the 1930s, Philippe Halsman exhibited at the avant-garde Galerie de la Pléiade alongside other photographic greats such as Man Ray and Brassaï, before going into exile across the Atlantic in 1940. His New York photographic studio soon met with immense success, and his pictures found their way onto the front cover of Life magazine, the first magazine to be illustrated exclusively with photographs. A prolific photographer, Philippe Halsman stood out not only for the scope of his work, but also for his many technical experiments. He developed an original creative process known as "jumpology", which involves photographing a person in the act of jumping. The photographer diverts the model's attention to obtain a spontaneous portrait revealing the personality of each individual. Philippe Halsman met Salvador Dali in 1941. The two men shared a deep interest in psychology and became fast friends. Over the next thirty years, they collaborated on a number of stagings that would go down in the history of surrealist photography. Dali's studied ardor was a perfect match for the photographer's technical audacity. Philippe Halsman produced several portraits of Dali, the most exquisite of which are included in the famous book Dali's Mustache, published in 1954. The photograph we offer, taken in 1951, testifies to the complicity between these two artists, who had been living in exile in the United States for some ten years. The complex staging of In voluptate mors is documented in a series of photographs (see below). Like a tableau vivant, the skull in the background is formed by the bodies of seven women, skilfully arranged over more than three hours to get as close as possible to Dali's sketch. It's a theme dear to the surrealist artist's heart, and can be seen as a modern variant on the Vanitas theme symbolized by skulls in ancient painting.
  • Creator:
    Philippe Halsman (1906 - 1979, Latvian)
  • Creation Year:
    1981
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 12.21 in (31 cm)Width: 10.83 in (27.5 cm)
  • More Editions & Sizes:
    numbered 66 on 250Price: $1,273
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    PARIS, FR
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU2661213276012

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