Salvador Dalí was born as Salvador Felipe Jacinto Dalí y Domenech, on May 11, 1904. The father of the renowned Spanish artist, who was a middleclass lawyer, had a strict disciplinary approach to raising children. Dalí’s mother on the other hand was a strong encouraging factor in the development of his art and his eccentric personality. Salvador was an intelligent child, but experienced many outbursts of anger. Because of the punishments received by his father because of this, the relationship between the two deteriorated. Salvador was sent to drawing school at the Colegio de Hermanos Maristas and the Instituto in Figueres, Spain, in 1916, although he never took his education fully serious.

When Salvador was 16 his mother died, leaving the teenager devastated. In 1922 Dalí enrolled at the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, where he was influenced by Metaphysics and Cubism. Only one year later Dalí was suspended for starting a riot over the academy’s choice of a professorship. He returned in 1926, but he was permanently expelled because of his declaration that no member of the faculty would be competent enough to examine his work. Between 1926 and 1929 Dalí could often be found in Paris, where he met influential painters such as Picasso and Magritte, who introduced Dalí to surrealism. Nowadays we associate his paintings with the main themes as man’s universe and sensations, sexual symbolism and ideographic imagery.

By 1930, Dalí had become an important figure of the Surrealist movement and by the mid-30’s his colourful personality became notorious as well. From 1960 Dalí even dedicated his time to creating the Teatro-Museo Dalí, which officially opened in 1974 and houses a broad range of work by Dalí. In 1980 Dalí retired from painting due to a motor disorder. This sent him into depression which was enforced 4 years later after he suffered severe burn injuries because of a fire. He was confined to a wheelchair. In 1989 Dalí died of heart failure.