Salvador Dali, Oiseaux Gourmandeur de l'Isle Sonnante from Les Songes Drôlatiques de Pantagruel, Original Large Lithograph, 1973

Salvador Dali
Oiseaux Gourmandeur de l'Isle Sonnante (Greedy Bird of the Ringing Island)
from "Les Songes Drôlatiques de Pantagruel" (The Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel)
from the rarest edition of 50 only

Original Lithograph on Japan paper
year: 1973
76 x 56 cm ca
Hand-signed
Hand-numbered 8/50

Catalogue Raisonné:
R.Michler and L. W. Löpsinger
"Salvador Dali, Catalogue Raisonné of Prints II - Lithographs and Wood Engravings 1956-1980" pages 155 - ref. 1398

With Certificate

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HISTORY of This Artwork

Sometime in the 1960s, Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali, already considered one of the leading artists worldwide, discovered a special book published in Paris in 1565 by Richard Breton, as the 'last work' of the writer François Rabelais, and named it after his bestseller about the Giant Pantagruel. This book, "Les Songes Drôlatiques de Pantagruel", i.e. The Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel (where 'Drolatic' means funny and amusing), consists of 120 woodcuts, each page showing a completely different figure: strange, hybrid creatures, combinations of man and animal, insect, plant and object, pot-bellied or hunchbacked, with special noses, snouts, trunks or beaks; each having a title in the end of the book.
Enraptured and inspired by the new discovery, he chose 25 images and devised variations on these then four-century-old prints. These images have been printed as original lithographs at Atelier Grapholith in Paris, and published by Carpentier in Geneve in 1973.

This very artwork is one meant to represent the Oiseaux Gourmandeur de l'Isle Sonnante (the Greedy Bird of the Ringing Island)

Here the original text in French (an English translation follows):

A la légèreté, au costume, et au maintien de cet oiseau chevalier, coiffé d'une tête de poisson, à l'aigrette et aux ailes d'un oiseau de paradis, qui lui servent de manteau, montrant de la main droite la croix de son ordre, et tenant de la gauche une longue canne, surmontée d'une tête d'oi-seau de proie, le bec ouvert et tirant la langue, on reconnoît parfaitement un des oiseaulx gour-mandeurs de l'isle sonnante, qui désignent allégori-quement les commandeurs des différents ordres. L'auteur les appelle oiseaulx metys, parcequ'ils exercent des fonctions qui tiennent de celles du prêtre et du séculier. La canne à tête d'oiseau de proie figure l'oiseau gourmandeur lui-même, qua lité que Rabelais leur donne à cause de la gour-mandise, à laquelle il les dit fort enclins, comme le priape qu'il montre est un indice parlant de leur lubricité.

By the lightness, the costume, and the bearing of this knightly bird, wearing a fish's head, the aigrette and the wings of a bird of paradise, which serve as his cloak, showing in his right hand the cross of his order, and holding in his left a long cane, surmounted by the head of a bird of prey, its beak open and its tongue sticking out, we can perfectly recognise one of the "Greedy Birds of the Isle Sonnante" (Ringing Island), which allegorically designate the commanders of the different orders. The author calls them Oiseaulx Metys" (Half-Breed Birds), because they exercise functions which are those of the priest and the secular. The cane with the head of a bird of prey represents the greedy bird itself, a quality that Rabelais gives them because of gluttony, to which he says they are very inclined, just as the priapus he shows is a telling indication of their lust..
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Sold with certificate of authenticity, copy of the catalogue raisonné, and copy of the original woodcut and which inspired Dali (we have it in our collection)