Sultan fumant le narguilé et figure féminin pour le projet d’illustration de l’ouvrage Les Mille et Une Nuits 1966

Salvador Dalí made this watercolour, Sultan fumant le narguilé et figure féminine, as an illustration for The Thousand and One Nights. The translucency of the watercolour lets the vibrant blue ground sing through, giving it an ethereal quality. It’s like seeing a dreamscape unfold, layer by layer. Notice how Dalí uses washes of colour to define the forms, almost like a watercolour tattoo. The figure floats, seemingly unbound by gravity, with the smoke from the pipe becoming a surreal umbilical cord. The textures are subtle, with soft gradations that give the image a hallucinatory glow. Then, you spot these stippled flicks of pink, anchoring the painting in the physical world. Dalí’s work is a constant push and pull between reality and the subconscious; like Francis Picabia, he delights in throwing us off balance.