Salvador Dalí * Lot n° 42

(Figueras 1904–1989) Roma, 1949, signed, dated and titled, watercolor ink and crayon on cardboard, 58.8 x 73.4 cm, framed This work is registered in the Archives Descharnes, Paris under no. d 3056 and is accompanied by a photo certificate released on 30 April 2021 Provenance: Albert Davis Lasker (1880–1952) and Mary Woodward Lasker (1901–1994) Collection, USA Dr. Robert F. Loeb, New York (a gift from the above) Private Collection, New York (by descent from the above) Christie’s London, 3 December 1996, lot 193 Private Collection, Switzerland Private Collection, Italy One of the interesting features of a work of art lies in its history. In other words, apart from the nature of a work of art’s execution (when, why, how it was created) which obviously plays a fundamental role, the history of who has owned it throughout the years can sometimes be a pivotal aspect for its appraisal. Roma, by Salvador Dalì, is one of a series of works on cardboard depicting various landmark locations in Italy: Rome, Venice, Naples, Lake of Garda, that Dalì executed at the end of the 1940s. The four works were commissioned by Albert and Mary Davis Lasker as a gift to Dr. Robert F. Loeb, an admirer of Salvador Dalì’s, who considered Italy one of his favourite countries. Albert Davis Lasker was born in Germany and raised in the United States. Early in the twentieth century already, he had become advertising executive whose advertising campaigns revolutionised the industry, making his company the biggest agency in the world. Lasker introduced to the public products like facial tissues (Kleenex in 1924) and broke down the taboo against women smoking with his advertisement of “reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet”; his use of radio, particularly in his campaigns for Palmolive, Pepsodent, Kotex, Lucky Strike not only turned the advertising industry on its head, but also significantly changed popular culture. In addition to his many businesses and interests, Lasker owned the Chicago Cubs baseball team; he was the second-largest shareholder of Pepsodent; founded one of the most famous golf courses in the US and was politically very active. In 1942 Lasker married his third wife Mary Woodard and set up The Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation with the aim of distributing medical research grants and awards. Mary Lasker carried on his philanthropic work in medicine and public health after her husband’s death, becoming one of America’s most effective activists in the cause of increasing funding for medical research. She was a leading advocate in major diseases including cancer, AIDS and heart disease. The Albert Lasker Medical Research Award became one of science’s most prestigious awards in the United States. The friendship between the Laskers and Dr. Robert Loeb was most probably based on their mutual interest in medical research. The latter was professor of medicine and chairman of the department of Medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. Loeb joined the staff of Columbia University and Presbyterian Hospital in 1921 where he taught and researched until his retirement in 1960. He was a specialist in metabolic diseases and one of a group of physicians at Columbia who in 1922 administered the first insulin treatment for diabetes. During World War II he served as Chairman of the Board of Coordination of Malarial Studies, introducing a number of important antimalarial drugs that are still in use today. Many believed that Loeb’s research warranted a Nobel Prize. Roma remained in the collection of Mr. Loeb and his descendants for almost fifty years. This gouache and watercolour work depicts a slightly imaginary view of the city of Rome taken from the side of the Tiber opposite of the Church of St Peter’s and Castel Sant’Angelo. In Dali’s vision, Castel Sant’Angelo resembles a Tower of Babel and the bridge in front of it is not as baroque as the existing one (the Bridge of the Angels). It almost appears that the angels, symbols dear to Dalì, had been removed from the bridge and positioned as focal subjects of the composition. The two angels – distinctly feminine figures – usher the viewer into the city of Rome, opening a dreamy, peaceful landscape wrung through the magical gaze of Salvador Dalì