Santiago El Grande, The Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick

Santiago El Grande

Santiago El Grande, 1957, Salvador Dali. Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Salvador Dalí was born in Figueres, Spain, on 11 May 1904. Dalí was a visionary surrealist whose boundless imagination, technical brilliance, and flamboyant persona reshaped 20th-century art. His dreamlike imagery and darng ideas made him one of the most iconic artists of his time. Among his monumental works is Santiago el Grande (1957).

Towering over 13 feet tall, it shows a levitating Saint James on a white stallion rising above the sea, a striking fusion of classical symbolism and surrealist energy. This triumphant rendering of Saint James the Great (Santiago El Grande in Spanish) presents the patron saint of Spain rising from the sea astride a white stallion and brandishing an oversized crucifix. An atomic explosion bursting from the four petals of a jasmine flower – a symbol of purity and one of the artist’s favorite aromas (a personal reference amidst an iconography that is otherwise rooted in Spanish tradition) – raises the triumphant steed toward heaven. There are numerous other elements in the painting which reinforce the narratives of religiosity and nationalism. Acquired by Lord Beaverbrook in 1959, it remains a centrepiece of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery's collection and a visitor favourite.

Salvador Dali.