BARCELONA.- Barcelona’s Palau Robert plays host to the exhibition “Dalí in Cadaqués by Robert Descharnes” at “The Photographer’s Showcase” from 24 July to 28 September. The exhibition brings together an unprecedented display of some thirty photographs illustrating the relationship between the painter and the personages of his most immediate entourage in his favourite settings, Cadaqués and Empordà. In addition, an audiovisual montage will be shown featuring the collection’s entire set of 177 photographs.

The relationship between the French photographer Descharnes and Dalí and Gala began in the winter of 1950 in Cadaqués. From 1955 onwards, the photographer enjoyed extended stays there, enabling him to build up a veritable photographic and filmographic account of the artist from Empordà. A highly representative part of this work may be seen in Barcelona’s Palau Robert, which was exhibited at the Cadaqués Museum at the beginning of the year.

Robert Descharnes, also former secretary to the genius from Figueras, currently boasts a collection comprising more than 60,000 film negatives of Dalí and his artistic work. Brought up in an artistic environment, Descharnes devoted himself to photography at an early age, first as an enthusiast in the mid-1930s. When he was a young architecture student, the Germans arrested him in 1941 during the occupation of France for having participated in the French Resistance. A stroke of good fortune prevented him from being deported to a concentration camp. Released on account of poor health, he devoted an extended period of convalescence to drawing, painting and etching. At the same time, he grew increasingly active in the field of photography, which was to become a passion and, ultimately, a profession.

An independent photographer, his images of artists were published in prolific European and American magazines whose editorial departments still maintain exceptional relationships with him.