How did Salvador Dali get along with his parents?

Answer 1

His mother died when he was young, but his father completely supported him. This was until Dali was kicked out of his house due to writing "I sometimes spit on my mother's portrait for fun", on Jesus's Sacred Heart, a painting.

Answer 2

Salvador Dali lived in the shadow of his deceased older brother who had died nine months before Salvador's birth. This older brother's name who had died before Salvador Dali's birth was also named Salvador. When he was five, Dalí was taken to his brother's grave and told by his parents that he was his brother's reincarnation.. Dali would believe this for the rest of his life.

Dali's parents both were supportive of his artistic talents but tension between his father and him had always existed. His father was a lawyer and was seemingly a very disciplinary father towards the young Dali. His mother was perhaps more so the one to help and push Dali in becoming an artist since Dali's father had other plans for his son's future. Despite this his father was still supportive of Dali's artistic inclinations and financially supported Dali towards becoming an artist and helped him get into art school. Dali's father actually accompanied Dali when he took his entry exams to hopefully get into art school. His father after Dali had taken the entry exam supported and calmed Dali by reassuring him that his still life piece that he drew for the exam would get him into the school even though the young Dali had thought he had done a poor rendition in comparison to the other hopeful students. Dalí's father also organized an exhibition of Dali's charcoal drawings in their family home. Dali had a younger sister named Ana Maria which I am not sure of their relationship. His sister did however write a book called Dali As Seen By His Sister, so perhaps this book could possibly shed some light on their relationship.. but I haven't read it.

Salvador's mother died of cancer when Dali was only sixteen. Her death Dali said was the greatest blow he ever experienced in his life. He loved his mother dearly and in losing her I think troubles that had always existed between his father and him would grow after her death since she would not be there to support Dali or quell whatever problems her son and husband may have had between them in the future.

Dali's father was angered after Dali dropped out of art school and when Dali worked with the other surrealists Dali's father believed them to be a bad influence on his son's morals. His father at this point highly disapproved Dali's life style and their relationship in turn grew more hostile. When Dali's father had learned of Dali's romance with Gala.. who was ten years older than Dali and she was also already married to Paul Eluard Dali's father was very close to a breaking point. The final straw came when Dali's father read in the newspaper about a drawing of Dali's called the "Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ" in which Dali had written a provocative inscription "Sometimes, I spit for fun on my mother's portrait" Dali's father asked his son to recant publicly but Dali refused perhaps being afraid he would be thrown out of the surrealist group. Dali's father then disinherited him and told him to never set foot in his home town of Cadaques again. Dali reacted to his disinheritance by shaving all the hair from his head including his eyebrows and buried his hair in the sand... which is symbolic of his banishment from his family...

Dali and his father never saw each other again (as far as I know anyway) and up until this point his father was still financially supporting Dali for the most part since Dali had not quite reached his fame. Dali would continue to struggle with money for many years even after he became famous.. WHICH I am stating this because someone on yahoo answers said Salvador never had to be a starving artist because his father supported him... WHICH is INCORRECT! Dali and Gala struggled with money after his disinheritance and for quite some time even after Dali had become famous.

Dali noted in his autobiography The Secret Life Of Salvador Dali that the house which he built in Port Lligat, Cadaques had a view of his family home where he had grown up... Dali reveals more than I have written here about his feelings and his relationship to his family in his autobiography.. I highly suggest reading it if you want to know the man that is surrealism...

Sources:

As an artist myself who was kicked out of my parents home and on my ways of being disinherited I have found I have much in common with Salvador Dali and found his writings helpful. I have read Salvador Dali's autobiography as a way to attempt to decode my own life as well as to figure out how he managed to gain success on his own. Like Dali's father my father always had other plans for my future but still supported to an extent my artistic endeavors even if mostly financially. My father sent me to art school where I dropped out for many of the same reasons that Dali did. My father and I's relationship has always been strained and my mother has always been there to help calm our relationship. Luckily I still have my mother unlike Dali whose mother died when he was 16. At this point in my life I am stuck... and by reading Dali's autobiography I am attempting to fit the pieces together of my own life. My father still supports me financially but I have been mostly cast aside from my family otherwise and it seems that right around the corner I will be completely disinherited.. My father disapproves of my life style.. and he disapproves of my girlfriend.. just as Dali's father disapproved of his life and of Gala..the woman who had saved his son from going insane... I will not be a famous artist like Dali.. but I most continue on anyway even if those I know have committed suicide left and right of me... just as in Dali's life... So Dali.. if you are in the big spiral in the sky.. help me form an eggshell over my soft interior as you did...

Cosmonaut of the future throw off your space suit and long live Robin Hood and Tarzan. Give up this absurd voyage into space.. But run through our humble terrestrial dwelling! Long live the bicycle! Enrich your own internal richness! Have only one goal.. one desire.. that to live.. and to live for a long time!