Legendary Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí would have been 112 years old now.
The Spanish artist was known to blur the lines between illusion and reality both on the canvas and in his public life, establishing him as an unforgettable figure of the Modern art. movement.
Dali believed he was the reincarnation of his dead brother.
Dali’s mother gave birth to her first son in 1901, a child that she named Salvador and who died of gastroenteritis at 22 months old. Nine months after the child’s death, the Salvador we know was born, and took his dead brother’s name. Dali was told by his parents at the age of five that he was the reincarnation of his brother, a belief he carried into his adult life.
It is a little known fact that Dalí adored cooking, so much so he even released his very own cookbook, Les Diners de Gala, in 1973. But true to his surrealist routes, it was far from ordinary. Billed as "an erotic cookbook" it includes a chapter on aphrodisiacs and recipe's including "Cassanova cocktail". It was a homage to indulgence as Dalí wrote in the introduction: "If you are a disciple of one of those calorie-counters who turn the joys of eating into a form of punishment, close this book at once."