SALVADOR DALÍ I DOMÈNECH (Figueres, Girona, 1904 - 1989). "Soul of Don Quixote. Sculpture in bronze, copy 242/300. Marble base. Signed and justified. Measurements: 33 x 16 x 15 cm. Made with the lost wax technique, the piece presented here shows Don Quixote of La Mancha from a new, dreamlike and phantasmagoric perspective. Although the figure has neither a lance nor a steed, his arm and his moving posture indicate that the Knight Errant is about to perform some of the feats that, in 1605, Miguel de Cervantes wrote, giving rise to the modern novel known to all and which, even today, tops the list of the best literary works in history. Like the written work, Dalí configures a surreal piece in which the artist plays with matter and movement, resulting in a work of fluid and vaporous forms that continue the surrealist style of the Catalan painter. During his early years, Dalí discovered contemporary painting during a family visit to Cadaqués, where he met the family of Ramon Pichot, an artist who regularly traveled to Paris. Following Pichot's advice, Dalí began to study painting with Juan Núñez. In 1922, Dalí stayed at the famous Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid to begin studying Fine Arts at the San Fernando Academy. However, before his final exams in 1926, he was expelled for claiming that there was no one there fit to examine him. That same year Dalí traveled to Paris for the first time. There he met Picasso, and established some formal characteristics that would become distinctive of all his work from then on. His language absorbed the influences of many artistic styles, from classical academicism to the most groundbreaking avant-garde. At that time, the painter grew an eye-catching moustache imitating Velázquez's, which would become his personal trademark for the rest of his life. In 1929, Dalí collaborated with Luis Buñuel in the making of "Un perro andaluz" (An Andalusian Dog), which showed scenes from the surrealist imaginary. In August of that same year he met his muse and future wife Gala. During this period, Dalí held regular exhibitions in both Barcelona and Paris, and joined the surrealist group based in the Parisian neighborhood of Montparnasse. His work greatly influenced the direction of surrealism for the next two years, and he was hailed as the creator of the paranoiac-critical method, which was said to help access the subconscious by releasing creative artistic energies. The painter landed in America in 1934, thanks to art dealer Julian Levy. As a result of his first individual exhibition in New York, his international projection was definitively consolidated, and from then on he would show his work and give lectures all over the world. Most of his production is gathered in the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueras, followed by the collection of the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg (Florida), the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Salvador Dalí Gallery in Pacific Palisades (California), the Espace Dalí in Montmartre (Paris) or the Dalí Universe in London.