Salvador Dalí’s wife and muse was Gala.
Gala was the name used by Elena Ivanovna Diakonova, a Russian-born woman who became Dalí’s lifelong partner, model, business manager, and creative inspiration. They met in 1929 at Cadaqués, when she was visiting with her then-husband, the Surrealist poet Paul Éluard. Gala and Dalí soon formed a relationship that lasted for more than five decades.
They married in a civil ceremony in Paris in 1934 and later remarried in a Catholic ceremony in 1958. Gala appeared repeatedly in Dalí’s paintings, sometimes as herself and sometimes in symbolic or religious roles. Works such as Galatea of the Spheres show how directly she entered his artistic imagination.
Gala also helped manage Dalí’s career and finances, making her more than a passive muse. In 1968, Dalí bought her Púbol Castle in Catalonia, where she spent periods later in life. Gala died in 1982 and was buried in the castle’s crypt. Her birth name is a useful neighbouring fact, but Gala remains the canonical quiz answer.