Attributed by recent inquisitiveness regarding Gala and her motives in securing Salvador Dalí within her grasp, we spawn a three part series probing and anatomizing Gala's sexual conducts and vainglorious demeanor, in addition to auditing Gala and Dalí's consensual pull towards one another. First and foremost, we will examine Gala's marriage to poet Paul Éluard and her liaisons. Stay tuned for part two of the series!

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[ Pictured above: Max Ernst's A Friends' Reunion, courtesy of Olga's Gallery. Click on the picture for more information and a larger view. ]

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Gala's first relationship was with her first husband Paul Éluard. Gala first met him at the Clavadel Sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland. She had been sent there by her doctors at age 18 because they were afraid that she might contract tuberculosis. Éluard, who was 16, had been sent there because he had a case of mild tuberculosis. They were there together for almost two years. During this time, they fell in love. They wrote letters to each other constantly for almost two years before Gala moved to Paris, France, in 1916 to be near Éluard.

When she first arrived in Paris, with no money and unable to get employment as a translator (she spoke poor French) or a designer/seamstress (she wasn't any good), she was forced to live with Éluard's parents. She didn't get along well with his parents, who thought her underneath their son's station in life (and she was bad at housework, too).  They married in 1916 while Éluard was on leave from the military.

They continued to write each other, and the letters took on more sexual overtones. Gala regularly talked about how the men in Russia had desired her. She also wrote that she had bought seductive clothes and expensive perfume to wear when he returned home to her.  She was also graphic in telling Éluard what she wanted to do to him. "I kiss you on the mouth and everywhere" and "I kiss you everywhere with the sweetest and strongest violence." Even though Éluard had always stated that they both had been virgins when they married, he was slightly taken back by the erotic nature of some of her letters.

In these letters, she was showing her dominant nature in getting what she wanted by ordering her husband to stay away from the front line. She encouraged him to continue to do well working with the wounded and to avoid the battle. Seemingly concerned only for her chosen way of life, she told him "Don't do anything to harm me." Éluard listened to her, but it made him feel like a coward. Quite likely unplanned, Gala and Éluard had a daughter in 1918. But Gala would never be confused for the motherly type, and the majority of the care of the child (Cecile) was provided by Éluard's mother.

By 1919, the war was over and Gala and Éluard were back together again. Working in construction by day and writing by night, Éluard was becoming well known in the Paris avant-garde circles. He had a talent for spotting paintings and soon became the unofficial arts editor for the Dadaist's paper Litterature. In 1920, he first spotted a painting by Max Ernst in a Paris gallery. He was so fascinated by the painter that he, along with Gala, went to Germany to convince the painter to move to Paris. 

During this time, Gala developed a taste for sex, bordering on nymphomania. At Éluard's insistence, she took lovers. They both enjoyed being in an open relationship where willing partners, for both Éluard and Gala, were readily available. 

Upon their first trip to Cologne, Germany, Ernst caught Gala's eye. And even though he was married, Gala and Ernst began to have an affair, with Éluard's blessing. In fact, in 1922 during a vacation with other Dadaists in Tyrol, while Gala and Ernst would play together in the lake, Éluard would watch them. During the nights, Ernst would join Éluard and Gala in their room. A member of the group had said that he thought that Éluard enjoyed group sex and also liked to watch Gala with other men.

In 1922, Ernst decided to move to Paris. Because he was in the country illegally (his visa had been denied), and couldn't get a job, he moved in with the Éluards. In the lodge where they lived, he painted all the walls with Surrealistic frescos, something that Cecile, who was eight at the time found both fantastic and strange and very, very scary. They continued their ménage a trios. Gala remarked later in her life that she regretted that due to "anatomical problems" she was not able to have both men at once. Ernst started to add Gala to his paintings. She was featured in his Au Rendez-vous Amis (1922) and La Belle Jardiniere (1923).

Eventually though, the relationship began to take its toll on Éluard. In 1924 he took off on a tour around the world. His father paid for Gala and Ernst to go to Saigon to bring him back. After that trip, the three split and Gala and Éluard returned to Paris. For the next five years, the pair would indulge in luxury trips, attend balls and take lovers, singularly or together. However, all this expense was taking a toll on Éluards inheritance, and a decline in the art market did not help their financial situation any. By the summer of 1929, money matters were starting to concern the Éluards. Gala needed a new artistic genius and that genius must have the potential to make a lot of money - money that would insure that Gala always lived in luxury.

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The Gala Chronicles: For Love, Money and Power Series:

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

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