Painted porcelain, bread, corn, feathers, paint on paper, beads, ink stand, sand, and two pens
The idea for this work began when Salvador Dalí discovered an inkwell illustrated with the praying couple from Jean-Francois Millet’s painting The Angelus (1857–59). He embedded the inkwell in a loaf of bread and placed them both on the portrait bust of a woman. A strip of images from an early cinematic toy called a zoetrope encircles her neck.
In 1931 Dalí described Surrealist sculpture as “created wholly for the purpose of materializing in a fetishistic way, with maximum tangible reality, ideas and fantasies of a delirious character.” Retrospective Bust of a Woman not only presents a woman as an object, but explicitly as one to be consumed. A baguette crowns her head, cobs of corn dangle around her neck, and ants swarm along her forehead as if gathering crumbs.
Provenance Research Project
This work is included in the Provenance Research Project, which investigates the ownership history of works in MoMA's collection.
[1933, Galerie Pierre Colle, Paris]
? - 1966, Georges Hugnet (1906-1974), Paris, possibly acquired from the artist.
1966 - 1971, Gustave J. Nellens (1907-1971), Knokke-le-Zoute, Belgium, purchased from Georges Hugnet.
1971 - [1992], Jacques J. Nellens, Knokke-le-Zoute, Belgium, probably inherited from his father Gustave J. Nellens.
1992, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired by exchange through Galerie Beyeler, Basel.
Provenance research is a work in progress, and is frequently updated with new information. If you have any questions or information to provide about the listed works, please email [email protected] or write to:
Provenance Research Project
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
New York, NY 10019
Explore more
Salvador Dalí
Spanish, 1904–1989 111 works onlineThe artist, author, critic, impresario, and provocateur Salvador Dalí burst onto the art scene in 1929 and rarely left the public eye until his death six decades later.
Learn more →
A Surreal Lens
Gallery 517In 1924, André Breton published his Manifesto of Surrealism, which, guided by Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theories, declared a radical break from the rationalism of modern society in favor of imagination, erotic desire, and unconscious thought.
Learn more →
From MoMA Design Store
Installation views
We have identified this work in the following photos from our exhibition history.
Licensing
Artwork or archival images
If you would like to reproduce an image of a work of art in MoMA's collection, or an image of a MoMA publication or archival material (including installation views, checklists, and press releases), please contact Art Resource (publication in North America) or Scala Archives (publication in all other geographic locations).
Audio and film clips
MoMA licenses archival audio and select out of copyright film clips from our film collection. At this time, MoMA produced video cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. All requests to license archival audio or out of copyright film clips should be addressed to Scala Archives at [email protected]. Motion picture film stills cannot be licensed by MoMA/Scala. For access to motion picture film stills for research purposes, please contact the Film Study Center at [email protected]. For more information about film loans and our Circulating Film and Video Library, please visit Circulating Film and Video Library.
Text from a publication or the archives
If you would like to reproduce text from a MoMA publication, please email [email protected]. If you would like to publish text from MoMA's archival materials, please fill out this permission form and send to [email protected].
Feedback
This record is a work in progress. If you have additional information or spotted an error, please fill out this feedback form.