Nine of Cups by Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí
1904-1989 | Spanish

Nine of Cups

Signed "Dalí’" (top center)
Gouache on photographic background

This original gouache is a part of Salvador Dalí’s sought-after deck of custom-made tarot cards. The original commission for the design came from Albert Broccoli, the producer of the James Bond film Live and Let Die, who wanted an original tarot card deck to use in the film. Though the contractual agreement eventually fell through, Dalí continued the project of his own accord, largely thanks to the inspiration of his wife Gala, who had an interest in mysticism. 

The Surrealist maestro drew upon a number of influences to complete the deck, which comprised 78 cards in total—22 major arcana and 56 minor. His own self-portrait served as the Magician card, while his beloved wife Gala naturally posed for the Empress. Jan Gossaert’s 1516 Renaissance work Neptune and Amphitrite was the basis for the Lovers card, and the Queen of Cups card represents a fascinating marriage of Duchamp’s iconic Mona Lisa remix, L.H.O.O.Q., with a portrait of Elizabeth of Austria. The iconography of the deck is as eclectic as one would expect from the Surrealist master; it is little wonder that it took him 10 years to complete the project.

This gouache is among the original 56 minor arcana cards, depicting the Nine of Cups. In tarot tradition, the Nine of Cups is an invitation to indulge in life's pleasures, including good food and wine, the arts and carnal desires. The card usually features a seated man with his arms crossed, wearing a plumed red turban-like hat with nine cups appearing above him. In his interpretation of the card, Dalí utilizes a photographic print of a 17th- or 18th-century portrait of a seated courtly lady wearing a similar turban-like headdress. A silver chalice appears just above her, and Dalí painted nine yellow cups throughout the composition, giving the card its namesake and underscoring the bacchanalia and indulgence the card represents. Flanking the painting in gouache, a man and woman in profile both close their eyes sensuously, adding to the card’s emphasis on pleasure. 

After Dalí completed his deck, the original cards were assembled and published in a limited art edition in 1984. While a number of editions have since been printed of the cards, the present Nine of Cups is the artist’s original gouache creation.

Born in Catalonia in 1904, Dalí was formally educated in the fine arts in Madrid, particularly falling under the influence of the Impressionists and the Renaissance masters. At a young age, he became associated with the Madrid avant-garde group Ultra, though he eventually became more acquainted with other movements such as Cubism, Dada and Futurism. By the late 1920s, his mature Surrealist style had already begun to emerge, and in 1929 he officially burst onto the avant-garde art scene with his Un Chien Andalou, a short film he made with Spanish director Luis Buñuel.

Today, he is remembered as one of the most legendary and significant contributors to Surrealism. His Persistence of Memory, with its melting clocks, is arguably the most recognizable painting of the movement. Two museums—one in St. Petersburg, Florida and another in Catalonia—are entirely devoted to his oeuvre; other important works by the artist can be found in the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Art Institute of Chicago, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), among many others.

Circa 1971

Provenance:
Private collection, New York
Private collection, London, acquired from the above in 2009
Private collection, Paris
M.S. Rau, New Orleans
Private collection, United States
M.S. Rau, New Orleans