One of the greatest showmen in the history of modern art, Salvador Dali’s enigmatic personality continues to generate fascination among people across the globe It was in the course of his life that one can trace the situations that led Dali to become the artistic powerhouse he was

Born in 1904 in the small Spanish town of Figueres, Salvador Dali grew up under the shadow of his deceased brother, who was also named Salvador and died in 1903, aged two Anguished by this loss, the artist's parents preserved their deceased son through his brother, which led to a sense of a hollowed identity for the artist Owing to this, Dali grew up with innate rebellious tendencies that would later become a hallmark of his artistic identity At the same time, Dalí was haunted by the idea of his dead brother throughout his life, mythologizing him in his writings and art

Art had been a major influence in Dali’s life since a young age He pored over several volumes of art monographs gifted to him by his father He also received encouragement from Pepito Pichot, a friend of his father whose brother was an impressionist painter living in Paris and known to Picasso This culminated with Dali executing paintings even before he had turned ten In 1917, he enrolled at the Municipal School of Drawing in Figueres to study under Professor Juan Nuñez, who further nurtured the talents of the young artist