Tristan and Isolde

The mythic clandestine love story of Tristan and the beautiful Isolde has distant roots that can be traced back to the Celtic period. The collection was realized by Salvador Dalí for a book written between 1969 and 1970 by Andre Mary called Tristan and Isolde. The series includes 21 signed and colored etchings. The surrealist artist was inspired by the eternal expression of “fol amor” which can be interpreted as mad love. The graphic corpus exhibits a highly clear, vivid and realistic layout with precise details similar to art and literature demonstrated by monks during the medieval ages.

This volume of illustrations was not the first time Dalí encountered the theme of the legendary adulterous love. His work of 1944 is a famous piece, ‘Tristan and Isolde’ that he painted as a backdrop for the ballet choreographed by Leonide Massine named Mad Tristan. The ballet was performed to Wagner’s opera titled Tristan and Isolde at the International Theatre in New York. Our gallery offers three authentic works which were part of Dalí’s collection.