The master of Surrealism, Salvador Dalí, conceived Le cabinet anthropomorphique (“The Anthropomorphic Cabinet”) during a prolonged visit to London in 1936 for the International Surrealist Exhibition (11 June - 4 July 1936, New Burlington Galleries). As an exhibition review from the time quoted, the exhibition captured the ethos of the Surrealist manifesto, which sought to “dig deep into the lower strata of the mind, delve into the subconscious [and] bring to the surface Freudian imagery…”. Like many of the Surrealists, Dalí was hugely inspired by Sigmund Freud, particularly his psychoanalytic theories and writings on the unconscious, sexuality, and dreams. Dalí’s admiration of Freud’s ideas manifests itself to captivating effect in Le cabinet anthropomorphique.

"The only difference between immortal Greece and contemporary times is Sigmund Freud, who discovered that the human body, purely platonic in the Greek epoch, is nowadays full of secret drawers that only psychoanalysis is capable to open."

— Salvador Dalí

In Le cabinet anthropomorphique we see Dalí’s uncanny female subject transformed into a human cabinet. A series of stacked opened and closed drawers comprise her torso, flanked by her outstretched arm, falling hair and distorted limbs. Her striking form visualises Freud’s concept that the human body is a cabinet of drawers, filled with secrets that can only be revealed if one studies the unconscious mind.

An image of enduring appeal, Dalí first made a painting of Le cabinet anthropomorphique in 1936. Then, in the late 1970s Dalí returned to the motif, altering a plaster cast to create this bronze edition. In sculptural form, the dreamlike reclining figure is freed from the confines of the paintings surface, entering the viewer’s space and allowing for greater interaction. For instance, the bottom drawer, adjacent to her lap, is functioning and can be unlocked by two keys respectively depicting male and female genitalia. In this sense the Le cabinet anthropomorphique further distorts the boundaries between fact and imagination, reality and dreams, in a striking and enduring manner quintessential of Dalí’s Surrealist body of work.