Salvador Dalí
Venus in Furs – Three African Women (also Negresses, Les Negresses), 1969.
ML/Argillet #363; Fields # 68-6 J.
Original, drypoint hand-colored etching with roulette on Arches paper.
Hand-signed Dali and numbered at the lower margins.

Venus in Furs was a novel written by Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose name is the inspiration and origin of the word “masochism.” It is a novel about a man whose chief pleasure was to be thrashed by a beautiful woman wearing nothing more than a fur coat. Needless to say, this was an intriguing subject matter for Dalí. Joining in the sadomasochistic game suggested by the text from Sacher-Masoch, Salvador Dalí found liberation and often portrayed himself as a man, a woman, or a hermaphrodite, either in pain or inflicting pain in a setting where Eros and Thanatos are laughing at each other—a major, powerful work, where Dalí’s freedom of line and thought is best expressed. — Dali-Argillet Collection.

Venus in Furs Series: 20 original drypoint etchings with roulette, of which 16 are 15 x 11 inches, and 4 are vignettes. Published in 1969.
Edition size: 1-150 signed and numbered on Arches and 1-145 on Japanese paper. Vignettes etching edition size 1-100 signed and numbered on Japanese paper.

Salvador Dali, The Argillet Collection –  Off The Wall Gallery, Houston, Texas.