Surrealist poet, and Gala's husband when she and Dalí met at Cadaqués in the summer of 1929. He had been sitting for Dalí that summer; the portrait was finished after Gala left with the painter.
Éluard was one of the four writers at the founding core of Surrealism, with Breton, Louis Aragon and Philippe Soupault. He had come to poetry through a tuberculosis sanatorium in Switzerland, where at seventeen he met a Russian patient named Elena Diakonova and renamed her Gala. They married in 1917.
In the summer of 1929 the Éluards went to Cadaqués at Dalí's invitation. Éluard sat for a portrait; Gala stayed with the painter, and the portrait was finished after she had gone. Éluard kept writing, kept his friendship with Dalí for some years, broke with Breton's group in 1938 over politics, and spent the occupation publishing clandestinely for the Resistance — the work most French readers know him for now.
How Paul appears in its pages: The French Surrealist poet (1895–1952), Breton's closest ally in the movement's founding years. Éluard is one of the Paris Surrealists whose walks, meals, and shared experiments appear in the book's Paris frame around the Nadja encounter.
Met · 1929
In Paris in 1929, and again that summer at Cadaqués, where Éluard sat for a portrait and his wife Gala left with the painter. Dalí finished the portrait after she had gone.
Married to · 1917
They met as patients at the Clavadel sanatorium above Davos in 1912, were discharged in February 1914, and married in Paris in February 1917. She left him at Cadaqués in 1929; he went on writing about her for years afterwards.
Met · 1921
Met in Cologne in 1921 when Eluard sought out the Dada collagist; in 1922 Ernst entered France on Eluard's passport and lived inside the Eluard household at Saint-Brice as Gala's lover, with the poet's knowledge, for about two years.
Art & literary movement · 1924–1966
One of the movement's founding literary core with Breton, Aragon and Soupault. He broke with the group in 1938 over its politics and spent the war writing for the Resistance.
Associated with · 1924
One of the movement's founding literary core with Breton, Aragon and Soupault. He broke with the group in 1938 over its politics and spent the war writing for the Resistance.
Visited · 1929
Paul Éluard joined the Surrealist group visit to Cadaqués in August 1929; his wife Gala remained there with Salvador Dalí after he returned to Paris.
Met · 1929
In Paris in 1929, and again that summer at Cadaqués, where Éluard sat for a portrait and his wife Gala left with the painter. Dalí finished the portrait after she had gone.
Married to · 1917
They met as patients at the Clavadel sanatorium above Davos in 1912, were discharged in February 1914, and married in Paris in February 1917. She left him at Cadaqués in 1929; he went on writing about her for years afterwards.
Met · 1921
Met in Cologne in 1921 when Eluard sought out the Dada collagist; in 1922 Ernst entered France on Eluard's passport and lived inside the Eluard household at Saint-Brice as Gala's lover, with the poet's knowledge, for about two years.
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