Paris, 26 March 2026 - Bonhams is delighted to announce its annual sale dedicated to Surrealism on Thursday 26 March 2026 in Paris. Executed in 1939, Bacchanale by Salvador Dalí, coming from an important private collection, will lead the auction with an estimate of €200,000 - 300,000. The sale includes paintings and works on paper by French, Belgian and Italian Masters including Salvador Dali, Leonor Fini, Jane Graverol, Valentine Hugo, André Masson, Man Ray, Francis Picabia, and many others.
Emilie Millon, Head of Bonhams' Impressionist & Modern Art department in Paris, commented: "For the fourth-year running, Bonhams celebrates the enthralling world of Surrealism with a dedicated spring auction in Paris. The sale will feature works by many of the most innovative and leading figures of Surrealism, from Francis Picabia to Man Ray, showcasing the movement's impact and legacy. We are happy to offer at auction Bacchanale, a stage set, but above all it is the largest painting created by Salvador Dalí for the New York Opera House, a priceless fantasy that can become a reality for any collector."
Bacchanale is a stage set comprising 13 panels in total, considered as the largest painting created by Salvador Dalí for the New York Opera House in 1939. Dalí defined it as his first paranoiac-critical ballet, a work in which he poured all his ideas about a total work of art: he wrote the libretto and designed the set and costumes.
The premiere took place on 9 November 1939 at the Metropolitan Opera. Key figures on the international scene collaborated on the ballet: Léonide Massine, choreographer and director of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, and Coco Chanel, who designed part of the costumes and accessories. The score was an adaptation of Wagner's Tannhäuser overture. Dalí created the maquette between March and May 1939, and the set was meticulously produced from late May to August 1939 in the Ballets Russes workshop in Monte Carlo under the direction of Alexandre Schervachidze. Dalí personally oversaw key details of the final curtain and backdrop, incorporating imaginative elements such as a faceless reclining woman, a motif also seen in his 1939 painting L'Énigme sans fin. Despite complications arising from the European conflict, Dalí was unable to attend, and Chanel refused to send her pieces, the premiere was a success.
Bacchanale is a monumental construction: 13 large pieces with a backdrop and four sets of canvases, with a total size of more than 20 x 30 meters, making it the largest work painted by Dalí, made of canvases painted with almost photographic precision and three-dimensional elements. The central motif is the Mount of Venus, overlaid with a large swan, symbol of sin and desire, which was originally built on a wooden frame that is now lost.
In 2023, Bacchanale was exhibited for the first time at the Salón de Arte Moderno (SAM) in Madrid, and in 2024, at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid as the backdrop for ten performances curated by Jaime Vallaure and Tania Arias. In 2025 it was on display at the Fabbrica del Vapore in Milan.
Other highlights of the sale include:
Tête en l'air encapsulates the surrealist world of Belgian painter Jane Graverol, an important figure in post-war Surrealism who moved within Brussels' avant-garde circles and exchanged ideas with artists such as René Magritte. The work evokes spiritual elevation and daydreaming, placing the body in a state of transformation that blurs reality and imagination. Characterized by poetic symbolism and precise composition, the painting invites viewers to transcend the ordinary world and surrender to imagination, while affirming Graverol's distinctive and introspective artistic voice (estimate: €25,000-35,000).
Francis Picabia's richly diverse and confounding oeuvre is marked as well by fluid movement between figurative representation and abstraction, especially in the 1940s. A collection of 11 paintings and works of paper by the artist will be offered including La Polonaise, oil on panel executed in 1940 (estimate: €200,000-300,000). From the former collection of Olga Picabia, this painting was exhibited at Zurich's Kunsthaus, in 1984 and later in Nice in 1991. Sans titre (Masque) is an oil on cardboard signed by the artist (estimate: €150,000-250,000). Works on paper by the artist include Sans titre (Femme de profile au chignon) signed, inscribed and dated 'Francis Picabia Paris 19 mars 1944' (estimate: €10,000-12,000).
(Press Release)
