SALVADOR DALI

When I was researching this site for this painting, I came across a photo in the Getty Museum’s archives of Salvador Dali sitting on a boulder on this point back in 1963, with his wife, sketching this gnarled old Cypress. The tree blew down shortly afterwards in a storm and the grounds have since been trampled by thousands of visitors (of which I am one) so the grass is gone and just dirt and boulders remain. After careful comparisons of the old photos, I was able to determine exactly which boulder he sat on in that photo and I hopped a little fence and crawled up and sat on it myself (and ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for dinner) with the awe and care of a pilgrim at a holy site.
If you blow up this image you can just barely make out the figure of Dali and his wife beside the dying tree.