Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali
Galarina
Oil on canvas
64 x 50cm
1945

Salvador Dali (May 11, 1904 – January 23, 1989) was a surrealist painter from Spain.

Dali said of this painting: “Begun in 1944, this work was completed in six months, working three hours a day. I called it Galarina because Gala is to me what La Fornarina was to Raphael. And, without any premeditation, here again we have…the bread! A rigorous and keen-eyed analysis will show that Gala’s crossed arms are like the interwoven wicker of the breadbasket, and her breast, the crust of bread. I have already painted Gala with two lamb chops on her shoulder, as an expression of my subconscious desire to devour her. That was the age of the imagination’s raw meat. Today, now that Gala has risen in the heraldic hierarchy of my nobility, she has become my basket of bread”.

This painting is of Dali's wife, Galarina Dali.
She was his muse throughout their marriage and he created many works of art that showed her nude or partially nude. There is speculation that she was also a muse (and lover) to other artists at that time.