On the 23rd of January 1989, Dalí was laid to rest in the crypt at the Dalí Museum-Theatre in Figueras, at eighty-five years of age. According to the Descharnes catalogue raisonee, ‘ The Hard and the Soft’, the famous Surrealists’ last painting, ‘The Swallow’s Tail’, was created at Pubol Castle in April 1983.
In 1984, several years prior to his death, he was seriously burned during a fire in his bedroom due to a short circuit in the call bell system, to which reportedly he used constantly; it was Robert Descharnes, his secretary and business manager, who saved his life.
Prior to his death, Dalí established a notarized declaration that expressed his wishes to be buried with his face covered, next to his wife Gala in the crypt of Pubol. Gala his wife of 50 years, died in 1982; after losing his wife, Dalí abandons public life and closed himself off in his Castle of Pubol.
Dalí was born in Figueras, Spain on May 11th. Despite residing in several countries throughout his lifetime, amongst them France and the USA, Dalí settled for good in Port Lligat, Spain in 1948. He remained incredibly artistically active following his return to his homeland, touring the USA in 1952, in 1963 exhibiting at the Knoedler Gallery in New York; a major retrospective at the Tate in 1980. It must have pleased him to see in 1983 a major Dalí retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid.
