Venus in Furs was a novel written by Austrian author, Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose word and name are the inspiration and origin of the word “masochism.” It is a novel about a man whose chief pleasure was to be thrashed by a beautiful woman wearing nothing more than a fur coat. Needless to say, this was an intriguing subject matter for Dalí.

Joining in the sadomasochistic game suggested by the text from Sacher-Masoch, Salvador Dalí found liberation and often portrayed himself as a man, a woman or a hermaphrodite, either in pain or inflicting pain, in a setting where Eros and Thanatos are laughing at each other—a major, powerful work, where Dalí’s freedom of line and thought are best expressed.