The work of Salvatore Dali consists not only of the melting clocks, this you can find out in the excellent Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. And also that this eccentric man had not a straightforwardly childhood: his older brother Salvatore No.1 died before completing his second year and nine months before Dali’s birth. So he became a kind of representative for his identically named brother in the family history. At the age of 17, he also lost his mother
He was very fond of her and she had tryied to balancing the severity of his father.
After Dali controlled the the old masters painting style, he allowed himself new ways of painting, which made him finally become the leading representative of surrealism. A lack of self-consciousness has not bothered him: at age of 22 he had to leave the Academia San Fernando in Madrid. Dali had refused to participate in the exam because he was convinced that his teachers were unable to judge him. © B.G.
I wish I was there :^).