Otitis

Which artist had an anteater? Unusual pets of El Salvador Dali

The Spaniard Salvador Dali was a brilliant painter of his time, who went down in history as perhaps the most famous representative of surrealism. Who else but Dali, who created paradoxical combinations of forms on the verge of dream and reality, would keep unusual pets that emphasized the artist’s individuality?

As a child, Dali had a bat in his room, which he loved very much. One day he discovered that his pet had died and ants were crawling all over his body. Since then, Salvador Dali has developed a strong dislike for ants. Already as an adult, Salvador took custody of an anteater from the Paris zoo. Once he even arranged a photo shoot with his unusual pet, walking with him through the streets of the city.

Salvador Dali walks with an anteater through the streets of Paris

Of course, Dali did not keep an anteater at home, which needed special care and living conditions, but he could easily cope with an ocelot, a predatory mammal from the cat family. This wild cat is found mainly in the tropical forests of America, has a violent temperament and certainly the last thing it wants is to be petted by people.

However, according to eyewitnesses, Dali always found a common language with his rather large pet.

The painter often took his ocelot, named Babou, on various trips and trips to restaurants. Sometimes, when visiting one or another respectable establishment, Dali had to tell the owner of the premises that in front of them was not a wild animal, but just a large domestic cat, which he had specially painted in an unusual way.

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“Every morning, when I wake up, I feel the highest pleasure: to be Salvador Dali.” (Salvador Dali)

Salvador Dali(full name Salvador Domenech Felip Jacinte Dalí and Domenech, Marquis de Dalí de Pubol- Spanish painter, graphic artist, sculptor, director, writer. One of the most famous representatives of surrealism.

Dali during his lifetime (May 11, 1904 - January 23, 1989) became famous not only for his brilliant works of art, but also for the diabolical ingenuity with which he attracted everyone's attention to his brilliant person. Moreover, to achieve his goal, he did not hesitate to use both people (sometimes putting them in very awkward and cruel situations) and animals.

Dali liked to repeat with pathos that already at the age of 25 he realized his own genius, although he would not buy his paintings in his life.

He loved to invent eccentric antics, turning everyday life into something surreal - he appeared in public places in a leopard fur coat or a jacket made of giraffe skin, he could show up for a reception in crumpled purple velvet pants and gold shoes with curved toes. He walked around in a wig that looked like a broom, and showed up to a high-society ball in his honor in a luxurious hat decorated with... rotten herring.

Why not? Geniuses have their own vision of the world. But they are still discussing it.

And very often Dali was seen in the company of exotic animals, which highlighted the Spaniard’s extraordinary personality even more clearly.

Salvador Dali often appeared in public wearing a leopard fur coat and accompanied by an ocelot, a wild cat similar to a leopard. The artist was so associated with wild cats that the Salvador Dali perfume brand and Dali Wild perfume, decorated with leopard print, were created in his honor.

Ocelot, with whom Dali was often photographed , name was Baba, and it belonged to the painter’s manager, John Peter Moore, nicknamed the Captain.

In 1960, in New York, Dali and his wife Gala were heading to the cinema and came across a homeless beggar with an ocelot kitten. After watching the film, Dali bought an exotic animal from a homeless man for the considerable sum of $100 to prank his manager. Ocelot was dropped off at the Captain's hotel room.
Captain Moore was already accustomed to the antics of his patron, but he was somewhat puzzled when in the middle of the night a small leopard jumped onto his chest with a welcoming roar.
Peter immediately made friends with the South American cat and ordered a treat of salmon, beef, cheese and milk to his room. With a peaceful grumbling, the ocelot swallowed the treat, quickly forgetting his hungry and homeless childhood, and hid in the far corner under the bed.

The next morning, Peter Moore was playing a prank on Dali, pretending that nothing unusual had ever happened to him, and answering leading questions evasively.

Ocelot was nicknamed Baba, which means "gentleman" in Hindi. and for many years he was Dali's favorite companion at parties and walks.

Subsequently, Peter Moore and his wife Catherine got a second ocelot named Buba, and then a third, named after the Aztec god Huitzilopochtli (who was simply sent to them by mail!?).

Thus, ocelots often appeared in public with the artist, although the predatory cats themselves clearly did not receive any pleasure from the noisy crowds of the bohemian party.

If you look closely at some of the photographs, you will notice that Dali deliberately angered the ocelot so that he would appear more wild in the picture.

Subsequently, Peter Moore wrote a book of memoirs, “The Living Dali,” which told various episodes associated with ocelots. In the introduction to the book, Catherine Moore wrote: “Babu means gentleman in Hindi.” And living up to his name, Babu lived the life of a true gentleman. He ate in the best restaurants, always traveled first class and stayed in five-star hotels. He was squeezed by pretty girls, serious business people, aristocrats and even royalty. (To avoid unpleasant incidents, the ocelot’s claws were trimmed.) He weighed a good twenty kilograms. After a trip to New York, where Baba was well fed and had no opportunity to move much, he added a little more. Dali was very amused by this, and he once said to Peter: “Your ocelot looks like a bloated dust collector from a vacuum cleaner.”

The same book talks about some of the “aristocratic” habits that Babu acquired through his constant association with extraordinary personalities. For example, every morning Babu ate a fresh rose flower and flatly refused the treat if the petals were a little wilted.

Of course, Baba was very lucky, compared to his homeless childhood with a street beggar, but it seems to me that the exotic animals ocelots would prefer to live in a much less bohemian and “wild” society. It’s just that no one interviewed them.

Although, Peter and Catherine Moore really loved and cared for their ocelots.

While traveling on a liner to New York, Babu fell in love with reclining on the piano while playing music, but then the pianist had to order a new instrument because the ocelot marked his favorite piano profusely. 😀

In the same way, Babu, who accompanied the artist, “irrigated” the ancient engravings of Pironese in a small printing house called the “Center for Ancient Prints”. Dali received a bill for $4,000, but offered to pay for the damage to the ocelot's owner, Peter Moore. However, Dali subsequently agreed, instead of paying compensation, to print one of his lithographs, “Explosive Spring,” at the Lucas printing house.

“The result of our visit - or rather, Babu’s “visit” to the shelves of the “Center for Ancient Prints” - was a profitable deal worth a million dollars and many years of cooperation with the Lucases” , - the Captain wrote in his book.

Ocelot dirtied a triptych, which was presented to the Shah of Iran and subsequently successfully sold for a million dollars at a charity auction.

He ran his clawed paws over the gouache illustrations for “Alice in Wonderland,” which were drying on the carpet in the Captain’s room, and even nibbled off a corner of one of the drawings. Dali responded in his inimitable style: “Ocelot did a great job! So much better, the ocelot added the finishing touch!”

And they are really unusual and good.

There is also a funny joke about Dali and the ocelot going around the world. Once in New York, the artist went into a restaurant and, as usual, took with him his friend Baba, whom he tied with a gold chain to the table leg as a precaution. A plump elderly lady passing by almost fainted when she noticed a small leopard at her feet. The spotted horror took away the lady's appetite. In a choked voice, she demanded an explanation.

Dali calmly replied: “Don’t worry, madam, this is an ordinary cat, which I “finished” a little.” The lady looked at the animal again and sighed with relief: “Oh yes, now I see that this is just an ordinary house cat. Really, who would think of coming to a restaurant with a wild predator?”

But the most famous work of art associated with Dali and the cat theme was the famous photograph “Atomic Dali” (Dali Atomicus), in which the artist himself and several “flying” cats were depicted by the founder of surrealism in photography, Philippe Halsman.

It is we who now, in the era of digital technology and “Photoshop,” perceive any miracles in photography without amazement. What about flying artists and cats?

But back in 1948, in order to take this “expressive and dynamic photograph,” the unfortunate cats were thrown into the air 28 times and water was thrown on them. And the louder the frightened animals screamed in horror over and over again, the louder the capricious genius of surrealism laughed.

The shooting lasted more than 6 hours. It was stated that none of the animals were harmed. Well, that is, none of the cats died right there in the studio after communicating with the brilliant surrealists - an artist and a photographer.

There is also a photograph. in which Dali presented himself as a multi-armed deity, and the black cat, stretched out exhausted in the foreground, clearly felt the pressure of the “celestial being.”

Cats, or rather tigers, later appeared in two paintings by Salvador Dali.

The most famous one has the non-trivial name “Dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate, a second before waking up.”

The unusual painting “Fifty, Tiger Real” (Cinquenta, Tiger Real) consists of 50 triangular and quadrangular elements. The composition of the painting is based on an unusual optical game: at a close distance the viewer sees only geometric figures, at a distance of two steps portraits of three Chinese appear in triangles, and only at a great distance the head of an angry tiger suddenly appears from the orange-brown geometric chaos.

In general, it is better to communicate with brilliant individuals at a distance, as with this picture. The big is seen from a distance, but up close life’s triangles and quadrangles are clearly visible.

Dali repeatedly acted “cruelly” towards animals. One day, Salvador demanded that a herd of goats be driven to the hotel, after which he began shooting at them with blank cartridges.

However, the Spanish artist shocked the public not only with the company of the ocelot Babu. Sometimes, as in this photo from 1969, he walked around Paris with a huge anteater on a golden leash, and even dragged the poor fellow to noisy social events.

Considering that anteaters are very cautious and timid animals with an unusually subtle sense of smell, leading a solitary lifestyle in nature and avoiding the company of even their fellows, it becomes clear that being in loud crowds of people and smoky rooms, or on busy streets with smelly and hard asphalt and traffic noise was a real cruel torture for the unfortunate animal.
The anteater is too whimsical an animal, and it was impossible to keep it at home (although many sources call the anteater Dali’s pet).

As far as I understand, after reading English-language stories about the famous artist, Dali took custody of a large anteater from the Paris zoo because he hated ants. We see this big anteater getting out of the Paris metro. Later, he repeatedly paraded with a small anteater (I won’t undertake to determine its exact species), which you will see in the recording of the TV show. He may have been Dali's pet, and I sincerely sympathize with him after seeing how the artist tossed him around.

According to one version, an acute dislike for ants appeared in childhood, when Salvador saw his favorite bat (who lived in his children's room) dead and covered with these insects. For the overly impressionable boy, this sight was a shock.

There is another opinion that Salvador Dali’s love for anteaters arose after reading Andre Breton’s poem “After the Giant Anteater”.

As a child, Salvador developed a phobia for grasshoppers, and his classmates tormented the “strange child” by ridiculing him and putting insects down his collar, which he later told about in his book “The Secret Life of Salvador Dali, Told by Himself.”

Salvador Dali was photographed with other exotic animals. For example, I had a very organic conversation with a rhinoceros. I think they understood each other 😀

A funny photo shoot with a very charismatic goat, which Dali even rode around the city. The artist said that the smell of goats reminds him very much of the smell of men 😀

Birds also appeared in the company of the great surrealist.

And in the next photo, Salvador Dali and his wife Gala (Elena Dmitrievna Dyakonova) pose in company with a stuffed lamb.

The next photo is also clearly with a stuffed dolphin.

Yes, it is difficult to evaluate the lives of extraordinary, talented and extravagant people.

But it seems to me that after observing the relationship between Salvador Dali and animals, we can confidently say that all his life he devotedly loved only one exotic creature - HIMSELF BELOVED,

And to complete the topic, a few quotes from Dali:

“Tell me, why should a person behave exactly like other people, like a mass, like a crowd?”

“Great geniuses always produce mediocre children, and I do not want to be a confirmation of this rule. I want to leave only myself as a legacy."

“At six years old I wanted to become a cook, at seven - Napoleon, and then my aspirations constantly grew.”

“I can do so much that I cannot even admit the thought of my own death. It would be too ridiculous. You can't waste your wealth."(The poor guy was dying hard - with Parkinson's disease, paralyzed and half-insane)

“My name is Salvador - the Savior - as a sign that in times of threatening technology and the flourishing mediocrity that we are privileged to endure, I am called upon to save art from emptiness.”

“Art is not needed at all. I am attracted to useless things. And the more worthless, the stronger.”

Note. This article uses photographic materials from open sources on the Internet, all rights belong to their authors, if you believe that the publication of any photograph violates your rights, please contact me using the form in the section, the photograph will be immediately deleted.

Salvador Dali is a talented artist and eccentric person. His actions and lifestyle raised eyebrows among his contemporaries. It is not surprising that Dali chose unusual animals as pets.

In the 60s of the twentieth century, Salvador Dali shocked the public with his appearance on the street in the company of a giant anteater. He became the first who decided to have this animal as a pet. Before meeting the celebrity, the anteater lived in the Paris Zoo, from where the artist took him under his wing. Dali often walked with his pet, leading him through the streets of the city on a golden leash.

Together with the anteater, Dali could appear at a social event or visit a Parisian restaurant

According to some reports, in addition to the giant anteater, the artist had another smaller one. Most likely, it was he who lived in Dali’s house, and the large animal was kept in special conditions.

Many people know about Dali’s love for anteaters. And the history of its origin has several versions. According to the first, Dali fell in love with these animals as a child. When he was little, the artist had a bat as a pet, to which he was strongly attached. One day he discovered that the animal had died, and ants were crawling on its body. From that time on, Dali disliked these insects and developed a love for those who eat them - anteaters. The second version says that the artist developed warm feelings for anteaters after meeting Andre Breton’s work After the Giant Anteater.

Video: Salvador Dali and the anteater (English)

Other artist's pets

Dali had another extraordinary pet - the ocelot Babu. In fact, the large wild cat did not live with the artist, but in the house of his manager Peter Moore.

Babu is translated from Hindi as “gentleman”. And according to Moore, the ocelot fully lived up to its name: “he ate in the best restaurants, always traveled first class and stayed in five-star hotels.”

Sometimes, when visiting one or another respectable establishment with an ocelot, Dali had to tell the owner of the premises that in front of him was not a wild animal, but just a large domestic cat, which he had specially painted in an unusual way

Dali bought an ocelot kitten from a homeless man while he was in America with his manager. That night he planted the animal in Moore's room as a prank. However, he was not at a loss and quickly found a common language with the animal. Later, Peter got a couple more ocelots, and Dali loved spending time in their company. But Babu remained his favorite: the artist often took him to social events, visited restaurants with him, and arranged photo sessions with his extraordinary “domestic” cat.

Salvador Dali loved to emphasize his individuality. He was not only a brilliant artist, but also an amazing personality, distinguished even in his choice of pets.

Salvador Dali is one of the most famous representatives of surrealism. But not many people know that he was the first person to keep an anteater as a pet, and went to social events with an ocelot, shocking the respectable public. We have collected 11 rare photographs in which Dali is captured not with famous people or with nude models, but with animals. Each photo is as extraordinary as the genius of surra himself.

Salvador Domenech Felip Jacinth Dali and Domenech, Marquis de Pubol said that he realized that he was a genius at the age of 29 and since then he has never doubted it. But at the same time, Dali claimed that he himself would not have bought any of his paintings. Nevertheless, today both the paintings he painted and his photographs are real rarities.

Salvador Dali sometimes appeared in public wearing a leopard fur coat and accompanied by an ocelot, a wild cat similar to a leopard. In the photo with Dali is an ocelot named Babu, which belonged to his manager John Peter Moore. Perhaps it is thanks to Baba that there are so many cat motifs in Dali’s works.

However, Dali happily posed for photographers with other animals.

The eccentric artist’s pet was an immodestly sized anteater. Dali often walked his unusual friend through the streets of Paris on a golden leash, and sometimes took him with him to social events.

The photograph of Dali, taken by the founder of surrection in photography, Philippe Halsman, and called “Atomic Dali,” certainly cannot be accused of humanism. If only because in order to take a photo, the cats had to be thrown 28 times. Not a single cat was harmed, but Dali himself probably jumped for several years.

In this photo, Salvador Dali and his wife Gala pose with a stuffed lamb.

For all his eccentricity, Salvador Dali also addressed the theme of religion in his work. In 1967, with the blessing of the Pope, it was released

However, Dali happily posed for photographers with other animals.

The eccentric artist’s pet was an immodestly sized anteater. Dali often walked his unusual friend through the streets of Paris on a golden leash, and sometimes took him with him to social events.