It may not look like it now, as this portrait was done when she was 55 years old, but Enid Gregg Haldorn was basically the Kim Kardashian of her time.

Because she was famous for pretty much no reason. She was an ‘it girl’ debutante who was photographed again and again at social events and tea parties and was the trendsetter of her age. People had a tizzy when she went to Paris in 1910 with her mother and bestie, Kathleen de Young, the daughter of the founder of the de Young museum in San Francisco and came back wearing a dress claimed to be “too stylish for anything.” The early 1900’s in Northern California had a very CW teen soap opera vibe to it and Enid Haldorn was the star of the show. 

Twenty five years later, just before he died, her husband Stuart commissioned Salvador Dali for this portrait of his wife and bits of their life together were included in the painting. Enid is on a beach, representing their property in Monterey and there is a man leading a sailboat in the distance, which alludes to Stuart’s love of sailing. There is the woman dancing, as Enid did for charities in her golden years. Enid and Stuart shared a peaceful life. Rich AF, but peaceful. 

It wasn’t all regattas and balls for Enid, though. A year after she married Stuart her mother died. She suffered an extreme mental breakdown and to top it off then lost her father. These hardships are perhaps represented by the dark clouds above her, but with Dali, you never really know what he was going for. We're just surprised that the portrait doesn’t have anything dirty in it. 

SOURCES:

Adams, Charles F. Murder by the Bay: Historic Homicide in and about the City of San Francisco. Sanger, CA: Quill Driver Books/ Word Dancer Press, 2005.

"Enid Haldorn - Salvador Dali." FAMSF Explore the Art. May 09, 2015. Accessed August 01, 2018. https://art.famsf.org/salvador-dali/enid-haldorn-7415.

Farley, Bill. "Salvador Dali's "Enid Haldorn"." BillFarley.Net. September 06, 2016. Accessed November 02, 2016. https://billfarley.net/about/the-peoples-tycoon-2/murrays-holdings/salvador-dalis-enid-haldorn/.

Harris, Nathaniel, and Salvador Dalí. The Life and Works of Dali. Great Britain: Parragon Book Service, 2004.

Long, Charles. 100 Years In Golden Gate Park: A Pictorial History of the M.H. De Young Memorial Museum. San Francisco: The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1995.