Illustrations and printed text of Sigmund Freud’s Moses and Monotheism (Moïse et le Monothéisme) by Salvador Dalí, with additional drawings by the artist
Illustrations and printed text of Sigmund Freud’s Moses and Monotheism (Moïse et le Monothéisme) by Salvador Dalí, with additional drawings by the artist
By: Sigmund Freud
ART.000278.1-.37
Art
1974–1975
Paris, (France)
French
Etching and Lithography on Sheepskin and Silk, with Bas-Relief Metal Cover
25.3 × 19.5 × 4 in. (64.3 × 49.7 × 10.16 cm)
Not on View
This oversize French edition of Sigmund Freud’s 1939 published work, Moses and Monotheism, contains illustrations based on watercolor, pen-and-ink drawings, and etchings by the twentieth-century Spanish surrealist artist, Salvador Dalí. The pages are printed using a combination of pressed etchings and lithography on sheepskin and silk in a loose-leaf format. They are laid in order within two large acrylic folios and housed in a container made of velvet, with a bas-relief metal front cover that displays the figure of Moses (based on Michelangelo’s Moses housed in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome) in the Eye of Horus, illustrating Freud’s argument that Moses was Egyptian not Hebrew. This is an intriguing example of the intermingling of psychology, religion, and modern art.
Printed in 1974–1975 and published by Art and Value, Paris.[1] Purchased at auction in 2008 by unknown owner.[2] Purchased at auction in 2010 by Green Collection, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma under the curatorial care of Museum of the Bible, Washington, DC.[3]
Notes: [1] Designed and produced from 1974 to 1975 by Ariane Lancell and translated from the original German by Anne Berman. This complete set of lithographs, etchings, and bas-relief metal cover are marked in the bottom right-hand corner with “EA VI/XXV” indicating this is the sixth printing of the artist proof edition which totaled 25. There are an additional 25 HCs and a full commercial printing of 250 for a total tirage of 300. Artist proof editions are typically given to the artist or the artist’s estate for distribution or preservation. Original drawings and Dalí’s signature are present and dated to 1975, signifying the item was in the artist’s possession at that time. [2] Christophe Joron-Derem, Art, Contemporain, Photographies, Design, Décoration, April 4, 2008, Lot 127. Museum of the Bible reached out to Joron-Derem auction house on August 22, 2018, inquiring about past ownership but received no reply. [3] Purchased from Bernard Shapero Rare Books, February 15, 2010. Museum of the Bible reached out to leading Dalí experts Nicholas Decharnes and Frank Hunter in October 2018. That correspondence did not reveal any additional provenance information. Some portions of this piece were donated in 2017 to the National Christian Foundation (later The Signatry). All portions remain under the curatorial care of Museum of the Bible.
Published References:
Lutz W. Loepsinger and Ralf Michler, Salvador Dalí: Catalogue Raisonné of Etchings and Mixed-Media 1924–1980 (Munich, Germany: Prestel Publishing, 1993), 233. Albert Field, The Official Catalog of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dalí (Salvador Dalí Archives, 1996), 100.
Karen Poe Lang, “Surrealism and Psychoanalysis: A Reading of Two Pictorial Motifs in Un Chien Andalou (Bunuel/Dali, 1929),” in Revisiting Centres and Peripheries in Iberian Studies: Culture, History and Socio-economic Change, ed. Mark Gant (Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019), 160–167.
Museum of the Bible Publications:
Jennifer Atwood and Stacey L. Douglas, eds., Passages: Exploring the Bible in Four Movements. An Exhibition Guide (Museum of the Bible, 2015), 107.
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