Salvador Dali’s portrait of his sister is to auction at Bonhams London on March 2.
Titled Figura de perfil (La Hermana Ana María), the work is one of 17 pieces Dali included in his first solo exhibition in Barcelona in 1925.
Dali would later fall out with his sister, with each sibling publishing rival books in the 1940s telling the purported true story of their upbringings.
Salvador Dali fell out with his sister in the 1940s
The painting is valued at £800,000-1.2m ($1m-1.5m).
It dates to a time when Dali was beginning to pioneer the surrealist themes that would make him an art world superstar.
India Phillips, Bonhams’ head of impressionist and modern art, said: “What makes this work so remarkable is its sheer rarity – only a handful of works from this period exist outside public collections.
“Dali was a very deliberate painter during the 1920s, choosing his subjects carefully and working in a meticulous fashion.
“This work was created at the very genesis of his leap into Surrealism. Laden with meaning and utterly enigmatic, it is one of the most beautiful works I have had the pleasure of handling.”
Other highlights of the auction will include Rene Magritte’s La folie Almayer (1959), which is offered with a valuation of £300,000-500,000 ($379,264-632,107).
The eerie gouache on paper displays a ruined tower transformed into a tree, a theme Magritte later returned to.
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