Jean-Francois Millet, The Angelus, 1857-1859

Commissioned by American art enthusiast Thomas Gold Applegate, The Angelus by Jean-Francois Millet would go on to become one of his most famous and, almost a century later, influential works. The work depicts a man and a woman of peasant class deep in prayer for the afternoon Angelus, a Catholic prayer announced by the ringing of church bells and occurring thrice daily at 6 in the morning, noon, and 6 in the evening. The painting received mixed reception upon it's release, but won over many with its nostalgic and comforting representation of rural life, and even igniting a bidding war between the United States and France which culminated in its purchase for 580,650 francs. Despite its popularity, perhaps none loved or fixated upon the painting as much as the surrealist painter, Salvador Dali.
     
 Dali was first introduced to the painting in school during his childhood, and he found himself immediately captivated by its imagery connecting the work to two trees that stood outside his classroom. For a time, the image left Dali's thoughts, until 1929 when he once again saw a reproduction of the painting, reinvigorating his interest and allegedly leading to visions of the painting imposed upon the real world. From that point forward The Angelus appeared throughout his works, beginning with his 1933 painting, The Architectonic Angelus of Millet, in which two large white structures stand in the center of a vast surrealist landscape, their placement and form in many ways resembling the original work. However, in this reworking the form representing the female juts out towards the male structure, seeming to attack it. This portrayal of the female form as a malicious thing reflects Dali's own fear of intercourse and sexuality.

 The imagery of The Angelus continued to appear in works such as Gala and the Angelus of Millet Preceding the Imminent Arrival of the Conical Anamorphoses, which depicts Dali's mistress and muse Gala speaking with a balding man within a room in the background, with Millet's painting hanging above the doorway. Dali again associated the painting with Gala in his work The Angelus of Gala, in which the original painting is played upon through it's inclusion within the work and the double portraiture of his muse, positioned perpendicularly to the original composition. However, his obsession with the painting was not resigned to remain within his works. Dali insisted repeatedly throughout his career that the subjects depicted in the painting were not in prayer for the Angelus, but instead for their recently deceased son whom they have buried between them, but that Millet had painted over this to make the work more marketable. At his request the work was X-rayed and seemed to show a geometrical shape that had once been placed at the center of the foreground.