Gala Dalí

Wife of, first, Paul Éluard, then Salvador Dalí (1894–1982)

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Lived 1894–1982, aged 88

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Wikipedia
32 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1894–1982
Aged 88

Summary

Updated 2026-06-13

She married two surrealists and outlasted both as their muse, manager, and most profitable collaboration — the woman who turned Salvador Dalí into a brand before anyone called it that.

Biography

About

Born Elena Ivanovna Diakonova in 1894, she first married poet Paul Éluard and moved through the surrealist circle as more than decoration. After Éluard, she married Salvador Dalí in the early 1930s and became his business engine — negotiating, promoting, shaping the work and the myth. She expressed herself through fashion and held her own as a creator within a movement that wanted her as ornament. She died in 1982, having spent decades as the spine of Dalí's empire.

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