Preview the painting’s new space below:
Voted Scotland’s favourite painting in 2005, the work is being displayed with two contrasting approaches, with a quiet contemplative area and an enhanced digital interpretation.
The latter reveals Dalí’s creative process and the story of the painting’s acquisition. This follows its loan to the Vatican in 2024 for a pre-Jubilee exhibition.
New digital screens transport visitors to Port Lligat, Spain, where Dalí created the piece. A film uses his own words to describe the vision, which came to him in two “cosmic” dreams. A free Bloomberg Connects guide offers audio on the painting’s history and the appeal that led to its reputation as the country’s favourite painting.
Read more:
‘Scotland’s favourite painting’ given prominent new home in Glasgow
When first shown in Glasgow, visitors paid a shilling to see it. Now in its new home, the 20th-century masterpiece is expected to remain a major draw among over one million annual visitors, who enjoy free entry. The new exhibit is currently open, located on the ground floor’s East Gallery, accessible via the Looking at Art gallery.
Dalí began developing ideas in 1948, using sketches, photography, models – including Hollywood stuntman Russell Saunders suspended from a pulley system – to study gravity’s effect on the body. In 1952, Glasgow’s Art Galleries Director Dr TJ Honeyman purchased the work for £8,200, despite public criticism over the cost. He also secured copyright. Letters on display show his immediate reaction and his growing friendship with Dalí.
Bailie Annette Christie, City Convener for Culture, said: “It’s difficult to quantify the impact of Dr TJ Honeyman’s visionary acquisition and the cherished role it plays in Glasgow’s spiritual and cultural life.” Senior Curator Laura Bauld added that the new setting “has widened our understanding of Dalí and offered fresh insight into this Glasgow treasure.”
Salvador Dalí’s Christ of St John of the Cross is now open for display at Kelvingrove Art Gallery’s East Gallery.