Paris – Following the outstanding results of the "100 years of Surrealism" sale in Paris last year, Bonhams announces an upcoming sale dedicated to Surrealism on Wednesday 30 April 2025 in Paris which offers paintings and works on paper by European Masters including Salvador Dalí, Leonor Fini, Jane Graverol, Valentine Hugo, André Masson, Man Ray, Francis Picabia, René Magritte, Giorgio di Chirico, and many others.

Executed in 1944, Evocation by Salvador Dalí (1904-1989), master of Surrealism, will lead the sale with an estimate of €250,000-350,000.

Emilie Millon, Head of Bonhams' Impressionist & Modern Art department in Paris, commented: "For the third 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.

Adrawing by Salvador Dalí, from a private Spanish collection, is areal masterpiece, very rare on the market, illustrating the genius of this emblematic Surrealist artist." Evocation is an exceptionally large drawing, executed in pencil and watercolour. It reveals two separate drawings on the same sheet, depicting two couples whose bodies are partially supported by two long crutches, emblematic objects which, in Dalí's surrealist universe, became trademark in the artist's work.

The symbolism of fragility is a metaphor for precarious balance and emotional vulnerability. The couples, linked by their closeness and dependence, are frozen in a scene of silent tension, where interdependence seems both a necessity and a constraint. Dalí invites the viewer to reflect on human relationships as unstable balances, where dependence and autonomy are perpetually in tension.

Composed of two distinct drawings, each signed, the work is accompanied by two certificates of authenticity, since Salvador Dalí had intended to execute two works on the same support, responding to each other, but also independent. The soft colours of the watercolour contrast with the sharpness and finesse of the pencil, accentuating the notion of duality: the fragility of man and the harshness of reality, love and isolation.

Signed and dated "Gala Salvador Dalí 1944", the work evokes the inseparable partnership formed between Dalí and Gala from 1929 Dalí and Gala. Gala's domineering character was the guiding force behind this incredible period of creativity for Dalí. In Gala, Dalí had found the personification of his desires, which had hitherto eluded him despite searching for such a companion in Paris and Figueres.

According to Robert Descharnes, it was during these weeks that: "Dalí fell madly in love with Gala Eluard, and the legendary couple Gala/ Dalí was born. Gala proved to be not only his lifelong companion and the inspiration for his work, she also filled him with exaltation and strength. It was she who enabled him to free himself from the prejudices, doubts, and hesitations that were tearing him apart; it was she who helped him attain all his goals." (R. Descharnes, Salvador Dalí: The Work, The Man, New York, 1984, p. 85).

Other highlights of the sale include:

• Please do not disturb by MAN RAY (1890-1976), executed in 1967, is a unique work made of printed card, string and magnets on a metal sheet in the artist's frame. It comes from an Italian private collection and has been exhibited in 1971 in a travelling exhibition in Milano, Rotterdam and Paris. (estimate: €120,000-180,000)

• Sun Over the Sea by MAX ERNST (1891-1976) is a rare work in gouache and pencil on paper, executed in 1928 (estimate: €80,000-120,000). It is one of a rare and important group of landscapes by Ernst depicting rays of sunshine falling on the surface of the sea.

• Salaganes by FRANCIS PICABIA (1897-1953) is an exceptional oil on canvas work executed circa 1932 (estimate: €150,000-200,000).

Following his break with the Parisian avant-garde in 1924, Picabia moved to the French Riviera in the South of France, soon thereafter beginning to work on his radical Transparencies paintings. The creation years of the Transparencies can be split into two stages: an earlier phase starting from 1927 – many of Picabia's paintings produced during this period were exhibited at the Galerie Théophile Briant in Paris – and alater phase that began in 1929 and lasted up to around 1933.

Picabia's Transparencies series, with fractured portraits and interlacing imagery, is embedded with both ambiguity and intrigue. With no set narrative or allegorical subject, the series is one of the artist'smost enigmatic bodies of work. In Salaganes, Picabia mixes multiple subjects into one ambiguous scene, combining imagery of men's faces with a vast seascape.