An incredible love story: Salvador Dali and Gala. Crazy orgies of El Salvador Dali

Local historian Renat Bikbulatov categorically claims that Gala Dali (Elena Dyakonova) “invented” her Kazan origin

35 years ago, a woman passed away who was one of the first to recognize the remarkable talent of the young Catalan and with whose help the artist not only gained world fame, but also became the highest paid painter of the twentieth century. According to Gala-Elena, her place of birth was Russia, the city of Kazan. This fact was considered to be generally known until a local historian became interested in it. A BUSINESS Online correspondent met with Renat Bikbulatov.

Gala and Salvador Dali

“BORN IN THE TATAR CAPITAL, ON THE BANK OF THE VOLGA”

— Renat Khairulovich, why did an engineer at a computer plant suddenly become interested in such a non-computer topic as the fate of Salvador Dali’s wife?

— It’s simple: in 1993, the plant where I worked ceased to exist, and I retired. I had to do something. Since I was a lover of books (I have about 10 thousand volumes), Kazan, and its history, I began to write articles for local magazines and newspapers. Around 1998, I saw this book - “Gala”. She interested me because there were rumors that Gala was born in Kazan. And they even pointed out the house where she was born. I published some excerpts from this book in the newspaper where Rafael Mustafin worked as deputy editor, you have probably heard of him ( Rafael Akhmetovich Mustafin(1931–2011) - writer, literary critic, literary critic, publicist, editor, laureate of the State Prize of the Republic of Tatarstan named after Gabdulla Tukay (2006), laureate of the Komsomol Prize of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic named after Musa Jalil (1976) — approx. ed.) And I studied with him at Kazan University. He also joined the search. There was little information about Gala’s Kazan life, and we decided to fill this gap.

Indeed, what do we know about the Kazan period of the famous artist’s wife, about her origins, family, childhood? In the book “Kazan Retro Lexicon,” Kazan local historian Maxim Glukhov writes: “Elena Dyakonova (1894–1982) was born in Kazan. She graduated from the Kseninsky gymnasium and the Higher Women's Courses (1912). In 1916, she married the French poet Paul Grendel (later known worldwide under the name Paul Eluard) and lived with him for about 15 years, forever remaining for the poet “sister, friend, lover and secret.” After that, she became close and in 1934 she married an outstanding Spanish painter.”

I learned a more detailed story about her childhood years in Kazan and Moscow from the book French writer Dominic Bona, published in Russia in Russian translation in 1997: “Dyakonova was born in Kazan, the Tatar capital, on the banks of the Volga. In Rus' and throughout the East, women from Kazan have a legendary reputation: the sultans recruited them into their troops, because they believed that they had no equal in voluptuousness. She was born in 1894, on August 26, under the sign of Virgo.”

Renat Bikbulatov

“SHE COULD BE CALLED UGLY”

"She has Slavic appearance: wide cheekbones, large chin, huge forehead, defined mouth, matte complexion; not a beauty, however, not even pretty. There is some kind of severity in the oval of the face and in the whole appearance; there is a lack of grace. If it weren’t for the thick, black, curled hair, if it weren’t for the long strong hands with rounded nails, if not for her slender figure, she could be called ugly. Thin, with prominent bones in the neck and shoulders, but quite well built. Her body is harmoniously proportioned and she has beautiful legs with thin ankles. But the first impression is not in her favor. At first glance, there is nothing attractive about her, and her arrogant appearance keeps people at a distance.

She is of average height, but she stands so straight and carries her head so proudly that she seems tall. Her appearance attracts attention. But what ultimately makes her stand out from the crowd (not just her youth and proud appearance) is her look. She has black eyes, feverish and black, shiny and dark at the same time. Like pitch black - a complete match to the comparison.”

- Excellent, but just a description. What about concrete facts—did a Frenchman help you in your research?

— Yes, Bon’s book has become a reference book; became, as they say, a good starting point for the search. Read on:

“What is known about her? There is very little information about her recent past. Mother's name is Antonina, mother's maiden name is Deulina...Antonina Deulina's family comes from Siberia, where the family had gold mines. But the girl visited her grandmother in Tobolsk only once with her brothers and sister. An uncle, her mother’s brother, also lived in Siberia, Elena barely knew him...

The girl has two older brothers, Vadim and Nikolai, and a sister Lydia, who is eight years younger than her. The eldest, Vadim, has the same black hair and dark eyes as Elena. Lydia and Nikolai are light brown, they have blue-green eyes, inherited from their father. Their father is Ivan Dyakonov, or rather, he was. He died in 1905, when Elena was barely eleven years old. He was an official in the ministry agriculture. Elena never talked about him.”

“But there seemed to be no Ministry of Agriculture in the Kazan province at that time - it was the capital’s prerogative. In the provinces, departments were more practiced...

- Absolutely right. Therefore, a simple conclusion suggested itself: question and verify all sources, regardless of the authorities of the authors. But for now let's return to Bona:

“Elena did not like to talk about her childhood; she was stingy with revelations about her past. It is known that her mother had a diploma as a midwife, but she never worked in her specialty, but was engaged in creativity - writing fairy tales for children. It is known that Elena herself loves to read... By the way she knows how to tame cats, you can guess that Elena is not indifferent to them. She still has a black cat at home. The information reluctantly provided to those who like to ask questions is insignificant and of little interest.

When meeting new people, Elena never said her true name, but used the name Gala, emphasizing the first syllable. The name is rare, apparently a diminutive of Galina. Gala - that’s what her mother called her. And her real name, which her father gave her, remained only in official documents...

Gala is unsociable, cold, stern, irritable, lonely... withdrawn to such an extent that it makes you wonder: is she hiding something? Does she have anything to keep silent about? Mystery of origin? Painful memories? Or maybe she prefers to get rid of her past forever, so as not to revive the inevitable suffering by constantly thinking about it. Elena says nothing about her past, about her biography. Any question about a previous life makes her angry.”

Lena Dyakonova (or Galya, as her mother liked to call her)

“THERE ARE NO DOCUMENTS ABOUT THE RESIDENCE OF DIACONS IN KAZAN!”

— Secrets are the real bread of a local historian. What happened after reading the mysterious French book?

— In “Kazan Stories” I once talked a long time ago about my further actions. Namely: in order to lift the curtain on the secret of the Kazan birth of Elena Dyakonova, to find out more about her life in Kazan before 1905, about her family, I turned to the state republican National Archive, where over the course of a year I looked through literally mountains of old documentation. The first results were literally shocking! In the metric books of Kazan churches for 1894 there were no records of the birth of Elena Dyakonova, and there were no similar records about her sister Lida, who was born in 1902. The documents of Kazan gymnasiums and schools do not say anything about the fact that her two older brothers studied in any of them from 1894 to 1905, and there is also no mention of Elena herself.

Further - more. The house on Gruzinskaya Street (now Karl Marx Street, 55/29), where she was allegedly born in 1894 and where she lived with her family until 1905, turns out to have belonged to the collegiate adviser Ivan Aleksandrovich Kotelov, well-known to all Kazan local historians. He lived here with his family; there were no other permanent residents there. By the way, this house is also known for the fact that after the arrest of his parents, the future famous writer Vasily Aksenov. And one more thing: in the address books of Kazan, not a word is said about the residence of Elena’s father, Ivan Dyakonov, in our city!

By the way, in 2003, filmmakers from Spain came to Kazan, they were preparing a film for the 100th anniversary of Salvador Dali. So they did not find any documentary evidence in our National Archives about the date and place of birth of Elena Dyakonova!

So there is only one conclusion from the riddle that Elena Dyakonova asked us: she was not born in 1894 in Kazan, like her sister Lida in 1902. Her brothers Vadim and Nikolai did not study in Kazan gymnasiums, and Elena Dyakonova’s family did not live in Kazan from 1894 to 1905.

House on Gruzinskaya Street (now Karl Marx Street, 55/29) in Kazan

“SHE WILL NEVER LOVE THE GHETTO”

— Having mentioned the house on Gruzinskaya Street, you said that the future Senora Dali, according to previous versions, she allegedly lived in it with her family until 1905. Where did they go from there?

— As already mentioned, Ivan Dyakonov died in 1905, when Elena was not yet 11 years old. A widow and children move to Moscow. And the fact that they lived there is already known quite reliably. There, Antonina Dyakonova marries a second time - to lawyer Dimitry Ilyich Gomberg.

“Dimitri Ilyich Gomberg,” read from Dominique Bon, - Jewish only on his father's side, which allows him to live in Moscow, a city where Jews were prohibited from living until 1917. Although Antonina’s children are Orthodox, go to confession once a year, regularly attend services and never part with icons, they, however, live under the same roof with a non-religious person who openly preaches new ideas of freedom, justice and progress. Dimitri Gomberg is a liberal bourgeois. The library in his house is not a decoration, but an integral part of existence. He hosts his friends, liberals like himself. Perhaps thanks to his Jewish stepfather, sensitive to the evolution of morals, Very smart and wealthy, Elena early developed a desire for independence. She will never love the ghetto.

The lawyer generously supports his wife’s family in abundance, because, in addition to Ivan Dyakonov’s four children, he also hosts two cousins who came from a distant province to study in Moscow. Dimitri Ilyich Gomberg pays not only for his studies, but also for trips to the theater, sports and, of course, medical care necessary for his stepsons and stepdaughters. Especially for Elena, he pays the costs of an expensive stay in a sanatorium (after Elena graduated from the Moscow gymnasium in 1912, from January 1913 to April 1914, she was treated for tuberculosis in a Swiss sanatorium).

Elena, according to his brothers and sister, is without a doubt his favorite; and it's true. There are even rumors that Dimitri Gomberg - real father girls. A shadow of doubt falls on its origin. She herself, even if she knew the answer to this riddle, would prefer the second father to the first. She adopted a line of behavior from which she never deviated: don’t talk about it...

Instead of adding the father's name to own name, as is done according to Russian custom, Elena Dyakonova adds to it the name of her mother’s second husband. Doing her own thing, she chooses the combination she likes: Elena Dimitrievna Dyakonova. This name testifies to the importance of a stepfather in the life of a young woman, who was able to replace her legal father to such an extent and was loved by her that she took his name as her patronymic...

In Moscow, the Dyakonov-Gomberg family lives in house number 14 on Trubnikovskaya Street, on the sixth - last - floor of a new building, where she moved in search of clean air: Elena’s health from the very beginning early age- a constant cause for concern for Antonina and Dimitri. Physical condition prevented her from playing sports, but not studying. Elena, like Lydia later, entered the lyceum, or rather, a private school for girls, the gymnasium under Bryukhonenko (this name made them laugh: in Russian “belly” - fat belly). Elena, despite her poor health, was a brilliant student. On her semester reports, she only gets B's and A's - excellent grades, since an A is awarded for the highest academic achievements. She achieves particular success in Russian literature. At home, Elena speaks French with a Swiss maid named Justine...”

Anastasia Tsvetaeva, Nikolai Mironov and Marina Tsvetaeva

“NO, THE TSVETAYEVS WERE REAL”

— Is your friendship with the Tsvetaev sisters at the Bryukhonenko gymnasium also part of the realm of rumors?

- No, this time it’s the truth. Dominic Bona writes in his study about the first celebrity, also a future one, with whom Gala-Elena is brought together by her amazing fate. Indeed, the writer is referring to a friend and classmate, whose name was Asya, Anastasia Tsvetaeva, the daughter of a university professor of history and younger sister aspiring poetess, dearly loved, unrivaled Marina Tsvetaeva. Asya and Elena were inseparable. But it was Elena who always came to Asya, beautiful house Tsvetaev in Trekhprudny Lane; the atmosphere of wealth and intellectuality that reigned in him seemed to her to be extremely refined. In the book “Memoirs,” Anastasia Tsvetaeva talks about their strange friend:

“Later, Paul Eluard and other artists devoted more than one book, poems and articles to the description of the personality of Galya Dyakonova. And maybe it’s my duty to tell you what Galya was like as a child. One of the most original characters I have met. The look of her narrow, absorbing eyes, the movement of her strong-willed mouth - and she was sweeter, more necessary than anyone who looked at me with admiration. The topics were all general. Poems, people that begin in a whirlwind of emerging taste are whims. There is, perhaps, a certain repulsion in her that is stronger than mine; in the rise of an eyebrow, a short burst of laughter suddenly scares away all the ardor of shyness (in her brother Kolya, repeated by blood resemblance). She grabbed my hand and we rushed.

Gala's sense of humor was extraordinary: her laughter covered her like a force of nature. Like Marina and me. Only there was in her a kind of doe-like timidity that was not inherent to Marina and me, in which there was an intellectual principle, only externally expressed by an instant convulsion of laughter, boiling up with one sound, almost crushing her; eyebrows flew up, her whole narrow face flared up, and, looking around at someone, at something that struck her, scared her, she took off from her place: not to be here. So a certain part of her essence was in running away, in slipping away from everything that she didn’t like. Without judging, without reasoning, she, perhaps without realizing it, turned away. A girl in a sailor suit, carelessly thrown on her shoulders - let her live! - an oblique ending in a stubborn twist. Be busy with her thickness, grooming? Try hard on your braids? Proud? A rise of eyebrows, a short gasp of laughter.

It seemed to me that I had always known Galya. We sat - Marina, Galya and I - on Sunday, Saturday evening with our feet on Marina's sofa in her small (one from mine) room and told each other everything we wanted, thought, had. We took Galya through our childhood, gave her someone from the past, covering with a sigh the hopelessness of such an enterprise, and from secret melancholy we easily collapsed into laughter, clinging to some awkward expression, a verbal mistake, absorbing from a bag of fragrant, viscous irises, beloved by all of us more than other candies.

— N-it doesn’t come off! Tongue-tongue stuck... - suddenly, barely moving it, one of us said, and it became so funny that it hurt from laughing, because into this abyss, insatiable as loneliness (trampling him!), We flew together three, tied like mountaineers. “It doesn’t melt...” the tongue continued its struggle with the iris. “N-it won’t melt...” the comforter barely managed to say. The paroxysm of laughter resembled scary story Edgar Poe.

- Has this ever happened to you, Galya?! - (I).

- Has this ever happened to you, Galochka? - (Marina at the same time as me).”

“Gala Dali was neither an artist nor an art critic. And yet she forever inscribed her name in the history of world painting.”

“WILL ABROAD HELP US?”

— You can learn a lot about the foreign life of Elena Dyakonova, about how she turned there first into Madame Eluard, and then into Senora Dali, and quite easily, if you are not lazy. But are your conclusions that Gala was not even born in Kazan at all, and perhaps has never been at all, not too categorical?

— A moment of patience! Once in Moscow, I saw large treasured letters on the cover of a book - “Dali”. I couldn’t pass by and not buy this book. The author is again French - Sophia Benois, the title is “Gala. How to make a genius out of Salvador Dali." I was simply shocked that I and my search were mentioned there. And quite intelligibly, in a writer’s way, the answer to your question is given. Read:

“Remember: local historian Renat Bikbulatov conducted a thorough search for documents confirming the origin of the Russian Muse? It turns out that, having learned about these searches, a good friend of Bikbulatov, a professor-psychiatrist, said that he once had a patient who assured that she knew the Dyakonov family. According to her, Elena was born in the village of Antonovka, which is located on the road from Kazan to Kamskoye Ustye. The local historian, encouraged by the information received, leafed through the parish registers of two churches in the village over a long period, but found nothing there either.

Why did Salvador Dali’s wife need to make up a story about how she was born on the banks of the Volga in Kazan? “This is the whole Gala,” says R. Bikbulatov. “This woman could not do otherwise - her life story had to be inspiring, and for this to be beautiful. Why not come up with the idea that Elena Dyakonova was born in Kazan? After all, she appropriated her stepfather’s middle name and became Elena Dimitrievna. And then not Elena at all, but Galina. And that was okay. Who would check where she was born? Agree, Kazan was the best fit for Dali’s muse, for her image of a Russian woman with Tatar blood flowing in her veins. Kazan was known in Europe thanks to the university. And the Dyakonov family, if not rich, was very prosperous. But in troubled years when did it start October Revolution, and during the Stalin years - repressions, how could Gala say that there was money in their family? Probably not. And so that no one could verify that this was not so, Gala could further confuse her tracks and lie about her place of birth.”

- It’s a shame if so... And Rafael Mustafin, your companion in this search, agreed with these conclusions?

— Let’s do this: let’s leave your question rhetorical, and at the end we’ll read the following from Rafael Akhmetovich: “Gala Dali was neither an artist nor an art critic. And yet she forever inscribed her name in the history of world painting. Dozens of articles and special studies are devoted to it. None of the art theorists who wrote about Salvador Dali can do without mentioning her name and recognizing the enormous role she played in the artist’s life. Many art historians draw a parallel between Gala and the Russian wives of Pablo Picasso, Louis Aragon and others prominent figures Western culture. It is rightly noted that Russian women have brought a special charm and intellectual brilliance to world art. Moreover, the very origins of French surrealism are associated with the influence of Russia and Russian women.”

The lovers married about 50 times. In the heat of his feelings, Salvador literally renounced everything that was dear to him, declaring that Gala was dearer to him than his mother, money, and even dearer than Picasso, who served as a source of inexhaustible inspiration.

Faktrum tells the story of how two amazing human geniuses met and fell in love.

Russian and Spanish soul

Paul Huluard introduced Dali to a girl which conquered forever

Gala and Salvador met unexpectedly; this meeting changed their lives. Salvador was 25, innocent, and had read the works of Nietzsche. He then lived in the village of Cadaqués, which was located near the city of Port Aigata. The artist invited two married couples: Magritte and Eluard. Paul Huluard introduced Dali to a girl who captivated him once and for all. “Meet my Russian wife Gala, I told her a lot about your works,” said Paul. Poor Salvador was speechless and could only spin around his lady love.

Then, after many years, he described his beloved this way in the book “ Secret life Salvador Dali, written by himself”: “Her body was tender, like a child’s. The line of the shoulders was almost perfectly round, and the muscles of the waist, outwardly fragile, were athletically tense, like those of a teenager. But the curve of the lower back was truly feminine. The graceful combination of a slender, energetic torso, a wasp waist and tender hips made her even more desirable.” The artist could not work away from her - the brush did not want to remain in his hand. All Dali’s thoughts were only about his friend’s wife.

Live together

Gala and Eluard's divorce took place 9 years after she met Dali. But the artist’s muse formalized her relationship with him only after the death of her first husband, showing rare sensitivity.

Salvador did not devote a drop of his precious attention to everyday life

Gala and Salvador settled in Paris. The paintings painted during this period were striking in their lightness. They changed the world and ideas about what an artist and his works should be. Salvador did not devote a drop of his precious attention to everyday life: Gala took upon herself everything that was daily and ordinary. She was also selling paintings. Gala once received 29,000 francs for a painting that had not yet been painted: such was Dali’s authority among connoisseurs.

It is known that the artist had an ocelot and an anteater as pets.

The audience was delighted and amazed various kinds eccentricities on the part of the famous couple. Salvador's long mustache and bulging eyes only confirmed the fact that next to genius there is always madness.

The public was delighted with the eccentricities on the part of the famous couple

Gala often poses for her husband; she is present in his paintings both in the allegory of sleep and in the image of the Mother of God and Helen the Beautiful. Sometimes interest in Dali's surreal paintings begins to fade, and Gala comes up with new ways to get the rich to fork out money. So Dali began to create original things, and this brought him serious success. Now the artist was confident that he knew exactly what surrealism really was. “Surrealism is ME!” - he said.

Mother, lover and friend - all for one person. Behind every great man is great woman. For one of the most famous representatives of surrealism, Salvador Dali, this was Gala - “brilliant, like the surface of the sea,” elegant and insanely vicious.

Gala Dali was born under the name Elena Ivanovna Dyakonova, on September 7, 1894, in Kazan, in the family of an official Ivan Dyakonov. Her father died in 1905, and Gala's mother, Antonina Deulina, remarried - to a lawyer.

Among Gala's famous childhood friends was the poetess Marina Tsvetaeva. Dali left Russia in 1912. Due to pulmonary tuberculosis, she was sent for treatment to the Clavadel sanatorium in Switzerland, where she met the poet Eugène Grindel.

He made her his muse and proposed marriage, despite the opposition of his parents, who considered such a union unequal. Eugene wrote poetry for her, on her advice he adopted the pseudonym Paul Éluard and began to call his love Gala ("holiday"). In 1918, the couple had a daughter, Cecile.

Some contemporaries are unanimous in their opinion regarding Dali’s external data. Even in her youth she was not distinguished by her beauty, but this did not prevent her from remaining in the center of attention. Ardent and decisive, Dali juggled the public, charmed her surroundings and unshakably believed in herself.

The men behaved around her as if they were truly bewitched. German artist Max Ernst shining example. In 1921, Gala and Eugene visited him in Germany (German). Dali posed for him and became his mistress. The affair unfolded before the eyes of her husband, who gave his consent to form love triangle. In 1922, Ernst moved to the couple's house in Val-d'Oise.

Gala was 36 when, in 1929, she, again with her husband, paid a visit to the young artist Salvador Dali in Cadaqués. Until this moment, Salvador was terribly afraid of women, but Gala discovered a new side of his personality in him, not only full of passion, but also new creative ideas. “The demoness of my genius,” that’s how the Spanish painter called her.

Another love triangle did not work out - Gala left Paul. In 1932, the lovers got married, and in 1958 they held a religious ceremony. Dali signed his paintings “Gala-Salvador-Dali” and took advantage of Gala’s extensive connections, who knew many influential and wealthy citizens.

Gala was her husband's manager, while he represented her as modern icon. Newspapers have repeatedly written that the sensual and weak-willed artist was captivated by a harpy, trying by hook or by crook to get to the top. Dali saw his wife as a living myth, and the press as toughness and prudence.

He called her Gradiva, Galatea, a talisman, a sweetheart, an olive, and the press called her “Gala-Plague”, “a greedy Russian whore”, “penetrating with her gaze through bank safes” and “a greedy Valkyrie”. However, the fact remains: it was Gala that helped Salvador, who undoubtedly has enormous talent, become a multimillionaire and gain worldwide fame.

The artist allowed Gala to have as many lovers as her soul desired. He even stated that he himself encourages her to seek new flesh, because it excites him. The older Gala became, the more lovers she had, whose age was only getting younger. They say that in Gala the husband found the ideal expression of a mother, and in him she found the ideal expression of a son. It is no secret that she deprived her daughter Cecile of love, and this makes it clear why Paul Eluard’s grandmother was involved in her upbringing.

Changing men like gloves, Gala spent a fortune on her “boys.” Her favorites received money, houses, cars and even Dali paintings. Once the heartthrob had dinner at a restaurant with Eric Samon, while his accomplices tried to steal her car. Another lover, William Rothlein, with her support, stopped using drugs and auditioned for Federico Fellini. But soon after Gala lost interest in Rothlein, he died of an overdose.

Another “boy toy,” singer Jeffrey Fenholt, known for playing the role of Jesus in the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar,” received more than a million dollars and Dali paintings from Gala, but later claimed that he had absolutely nothing to do with her.

Fame, money, sex - everything was going just fine, except for one thing: Gala was getting old. Feeling the approach of sunset, she asked Salvador to buy her the medieval Pubol Castle (Gala Dali Castle). The purchase took place in 1968. The spouse was allowed to appear there only by special written invitation. Dali was completely delighted with such restrictions, because Gala again became an “impregnable fortress” for him, and in close proximity the artist saw the threat of the destruction of any passion.

In the last years of her life, Gala, as best she could, resisted the approaching infirmities of old age and fought against illness. She once said that the day of her death would be the happiest day of her life. In 1982, after a bad fall, Gala broke her hip. She spent several days in the clinic, where she suffered from severe pain, before dying on June 10. Dali took her body to the family crypt in Pubol.

The artist lived for another seven years. His Parkinson's disease progressed. He suffered severe burns in the Púbol Castle fire in 1984, suffered from “heart failure” in 1989 and died soon after on January 23rd.

Gala led personal diary in Russian. It is not known for certain where these priceless records are now located.

The story of the legendary couple has been told thousands of times, but, despite everything, you want to listen to it again and again. After all, such stories make you believe in true love.

Girl wrapped in white fur

Gala and Dali first met in the summer of 1929, but the artist himself claimed that he saw his muse much earlier, when he was in first grade. One of his friends gave him a fountain pen. Inside the glass ball was a picture of a girl in a fluffy fur coat. Dali later recalled: “Her image was imprinted at that moment on every cell of my being, from my pupils to my fingertips. My Russian girl, wrapped in white fur, was carried away somewhere by a troika - almost miraculously she escaped from a pack of ferocious wolves with burning eyes. She looked at me without looking away, and there was so much pride in her face that my heart sank with admiration... Was it Gala? I never doubted it - it was her."

From that very day until their meeting, the artist kept within himself the image of a Russian girl and seemed to be waiting for their meeting, without doubting that it would happen. In 1914 he began studying at the municipal art school. Even then, his classmates considered him strange: the boy would get into fights for no reason, and his eccentric antics were famous throughout the school. By some miracle he managed to enter the Art Academy of San Fernando. For young man made a rare exception, because he did not pass the entrance test. For the exam, he made a drawing smaller than the required size, and when he was told to correct the mistake, he brought the work even smaller. In the year of admission, it happens in the Dali family great sorrow, Salvador Dali's mother dies, what becomes a terrible blow for the extremely sensitive nature of the young artist.

During his studies, Salvador, despite his reputation as a dandy, prefers Nietzsche's books to the company of women. And why should he waste himself on women, because he is waiting for his Goddess, his only muse.

Despite his talent, the eccentric Dali manages to last only four years at the academy. In 1926, he was expelled for his arrogant and disdainful attitude towards teachers. Soon he leaves for Paris, where he meets Picasso and plunges headlong into bohemian life.

At this time, Gala, who is ten years older than Dali, had already acquired a husband, daughter and lover. Born in 1894 in Kazan, then Elena Dyakonova always knew that she would shine and not vegetate in the provincial wilderness. In her diary she wrote: “I will never be just a housewife. I will read a lot, a lot. I will do whatever I want, but at the same time maintain the attractiveness of a woman who does not overwork herself. I will shine like a cocotte, smell like perfume and always have well-groomed hands with manicured nails.”

In 1912, the parents sent the girl to Switzerland to be treated for tuberculosis. There she met the poet Eugene-Émile-Paul Grandel. Later she will give him the name Paul Eluard, and she will call herself Gala. Their romance will end with a wedding; Gala moved to Paris. By the time she met Salvador Dali, she was no longer a sickly, shy girl from Russia, she had turned into a real Parisian, that very cocotte who drove the most unavailable men crazy.

“I immediately realized that he was a genius”

In the summer of 1929, Paul Eluard and his wife were invited to the village of Cadaques, to visit the young Spanish artist Salvador Dali. The owner wanted to meet his guests at unusual form. He tore his silk shirt, shaved his armpits and painted them blue, rubbed his body with a mixture of fish glue, goat droppings and lavender, and inserted a geranium flower behind his ear. But while still unnoticed, he saw the guest and immediately ran away to change clothes. Before Paul and his wife, Dali, contrary to his plans, appeared almost normal person, but Gala shocked the artist so much that he was attacked by a fit of hysterical laughter. This did not scare her off at all; on the contrary, it only fueled mutual interest. “I immediately realized that he was a genius,” Gala wrote.

Thus began their whirlwind romance, which lasted until the death of the artist’s beloved in 1982.

Three years later, she left her husband and moved in with Dali, and they got married that same year. But the religious ceremony took place only in 1958, after the death of Paul Eluard. Gala could not afford to marry someone else out of respect for her ex-husband.

Dali and Gala became perfect couple. An eccentric, highly disorganized genius, with a whole list of phobias and a rational, cold-blooded muse. Their day was structured according to a pattern that Gala described as follows: “In the morning, El Salvador makes mistakes, and in the afternoon I correct them, tearing up the contracts he frivolously signed.” It was she who helped Dali become a symbol of the era, it was she who created an entire empire around his name. Some saw in her support and support, without which Dali’s talent would have disappeared into obscurity, others called her a predator, thirsty for money and appropriating the fame of her husband.

Journalist Frank Whitford in the Sunday Times wrote in the newspaper in the summer of 1994: “The Gala-Dali couple was to some extent reminiscent of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Helpless in everyday life, the extremely sensual artist was captivated by a tough, calculating and desperately upward predator, whom the surrealists dubbed Gala Plague. It was also said about her that her gaze penetrates the walls of bank safes. However, in order to find out the status of Dali’s account, she did not need X-ray abilities: the account was general. She simply took the defenseless and undoubtedly gifted Dali and turned him into a multimillionaire and world-famous star. Even before their marriage in 1934, Gala managed to ensure that their house began to besieged by crowds of wealthy collectors who passionately wanted to acquire relics consecrated by the genius of Dali.”

“I love Gala more than my mother, more than my father, more than Picasso and even more than money.”

Salvador Dali and Gala are constantly under the gun of cameras. They lead an active public life and constantly appear on the covers of magazines. In 1934, Gala undertakes next step in the “promotion” of Salvador Dali. She is taking him to America. Where, if not in the United States, will they accept an extravagant artist who is unlike anyone else? The country, in love with everything new and unusual, responded to all of Dali’s most incredible ideas and was ready to pay huge amounts of money for them. The United States was gripped by a real “surrealist fever”; entire balls were held in honor of Dali, where the entire New York elite came. “All over the world,” writes Dali, “and especially in America, people are burning with desire to know what is the secret of the method with which I managed to achieve such successes. But this method really exists. And it is called the “paranoid-critical method”. It has been more than thirty years since I invented it and have been using it with constant success, although to this day I have not been able to understand what this method consists of.”

Time passed, Gala grew old, and even the succession of young lovers did not bring her peace and joy. Her latest passion was singer Jeff Fenholt, who played main role in the rock opera "Jesus Christ Superstar". Gala took an active part in his destiny, helped him start his career and gave him luxury home in Long Island.

Dali did not comment on his wife’s affairs, and Gala, in turn, said: “Salvador doesn’t care, each of us has our own life.” Be that as it may, no one witnessed major quarrels between lovers. So they lived in perfect harmony until Gala died in 1982 from numerous illnesses. “The day of death will be the happiest day of my life,” she said, consumed by the infirmity of old age.

Gala bequeathed to bury herself in Pubol Castle, which was given to her by Salvador. She died in a hospital 80 kilometers from the castle. A Spanish law passed during the plague prohibited the transportation of dead bodies, but Dali went against the law. He wrapped his wife's body in a white sheet, placed it in the back seat of the Cadillac, and the body was taken to Pubol, where everything was ready for the ceremony. Dali was not present at the funeral.

After Gala's death, the artist lived for another seven years.

The love story of the great surrealist Salvador Dali and his rebellious muse Elena Dyakonova is incredible. It is full of unexpected turns, ups and downs.

Russian and Spanish soul

Paul Huluard introduced Dali to a girl who captivated him forever
Gala and Salvador met unexpectedly; this meeting changed their lives. Salvador was 25, innocent, and had read the works of Nietzsche. He then lived in the village of Cadaqués, which was located near the city of Port Aigata. The artist invited two married couples to visit: Magritte and Eluard. Paul Huluard introduced Dali to a girl who captivated him once and for all. “Meet my Russian wife Gala, I told her a lot about your works,” said Paul. Poor Salvador was speechless and could only spin around his lady love.

Then, after many years, he described his beloved in the book “The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, Written by Himself”: “Her body was tender, like a child’s. The line of the shoulders was almost perfectly round, and the muscles of the waist, outwardly fragile, were athletically tense, like those of a teenager. But the curve of the lower back was truly feminine. The graceful combination of a slender, energetic torso, a wasp waist and tender hips made her even more desirable.” The artist could not work away from her - the brush did not want to remain in his hand. All Dali’s thoughts were only about his friend’s wife.

Live together

Gala and Eluard's divorce took place 9 years after she met Dali. But the artist’s muse formalized her relationship with him only after the death of her first husband, showing rare sensitivity.

Salvador did not devote a drop of his precious attention to everyday life
Gala and Salvador settled in Paris. The paintings painted during this period were striking in their lightness. They changed the world and ideas about what an artist and his works should be. Salvador did not devote a drop of his precious attention to everyday life: Gala took upon herself everything that was daily and ordinary. She was also selling paintings. Gala once received 29,000 francs for a painting that had not yet been painted: such was Dali’s authority among connoisseurs.
It is known that the artist had an ocelot and an anteater as pets.

The audience was delighted and amazed at various kinds of eccentricities on the part of the famous couple. Salvador's long mustache and bulging eyes only confirmed the fact that next to genius there is always madness.

Gala often poses for her husband; she is present in his paintings both in the allegory of sleep and in the image of the Mother of God and Helen the Beautiful. Sometimes interest in Dali's surreal paintings begins to fade, and Gala comes up with new ways to get the rich to fork out money. So Dali began to create original things, and this brought him serious success. Now the artist was confident that he knew exactly what surrealism really was. “Surrealism is ME!” - he said.