Woman celebrates birthday with dream gift
Published Saturday November 14th, 2009
Mary Carter is celebrating her 50th birthday with a gift she's wanted for a long time.
Carter, who runs a landfill and a quarry in Hartford, England, said she has been fascinated by Salvador Dali's painting called Santiago El Grande for many years. She said a print of the painting hangs on a wall in her home, but she always hoped she would have the chance to see the real thing.
"I promised myself I'd come see it if I ever had the chance," Carter said. "The trip came up at the right time."
With her birthday just a month away, Carter decided to treat herself and use birthday donations from friends to make her first visit to Canada.
She spent a few days sightseeing in Ontario before coming to Fredericton for one reason: to visit the Beaverbrook Art Gallery and see her favourite Dali painting.
Carter said that seeing the painting in person was everything she had imagined.
"I love it," she said. "It grabs you and draws you in."
At 4.1 metres high and 3.1 metres wide, the painting is almost four times larger than Dali's portraits of Sir James Dunn and Lady Dunn, which hang on either side of Santiago El Grande. Carter said the size of the piece is what amazed her.
"It's the scale," she said. "How someone can produce a painting like that astounds me."
Gerry Rymes, a guide at the gallery, gave Carter a tour and explained some of the history and imagery of Santiago El Grande, which depicts St. James, the patron saint of Spain, riding a white horse.
"It was intended to be an altar piece," Rymes said of the painting done in 1957.
"It was meant to be seen at the end of a great church, but it was rejected by the (Spanish) Catholic Church."
Rymes said that the painting was rejected because of issues the church had with Dali, rather than the artistic merit of the painting. Lady Dunn, who had been friends with Dali since the 1940s, approached the artist and asked for the painting. It has been hanging in the Beaverbrook Art Gallery since 1959.
Rymes said the painting attracts visitors from across the country and around the world.
"It's the one thing that, even if people haven't been to the gallery, or haven't been here for 30 years, it creates an immediate connection," he said.
Rymes had Carter lie on the floor and look up at the painting to get the full effect. By viewing the piece this way, he said, parts of the painting appears to be three dimensional, and the viewer begins to feel as though they are the pilgrim at the bottom of the painting having a vision of St. James.
Carter said that seeing the painting from a different angle made it seem even more special and awe-inspiring.
"I think it's stunning," she said. "It's absolutely fabulous."
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