Dali was born 08:45 a.m. May 11, 1904, at number 20 Monturiolin street in the town of Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. Dali attended Municipal Drawing School, where he first received formal art training. In 1916 Dali discovered modern painting on a summer vacation to Cadaqués with the family of Ramon Pichot, a local artist who made regular trips to Paris.

Dali was expelled from the Academy in 1926 shortly before his final exams when he stated that no one on the faculty was competent to examine him. That same year he made his first visit to Paris, where he met with Pablo Picasso, whom young Dali revered; the older artist had already heard favorable things about Dali from Joan Miro. Dali did a number of works heavily influenced by Picasso and Miro over the next few years, as he groped towards developing his own style.

Dali produced over 1,500 paintings in his career, in addition to producing illustrations for books, lithographs, designs for theater sets and costumes, a great number of drawings, dozens of sculptures, and various other projects, including an animated cartoon for Disney.