The diptych painted during the Spanish Civil War and at the height of Dalí's surrealist period, was part of the collection of the Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988) associated with the surrealist movement, where it remained for more than half a century, according to the Bonhams statement.

The work will headline the lot of impressionist and modern art of the London auction house of the 15 October, and is owned by the Isabella Scelsi Foundation of Rome, reported the Efe news agency.

The work is made with the contours of two frames that draw human silhouettes (man and woman), inclined to each other, and inside the artist painted a desert landscape that seems to merge into a single larger painting. Surreal motifs -described the auction houses- show scattered rocks, a disfigured tree, indistinct human figures, a girl jumping, a giraffe on fire and clouds that cut off the heads of the panels.

“Couple with heads full of clouds” (1937) is a key masterpiece of Dalí's surrealist period, is filled with the highly personal imagery that made the Spanish artist perhaps the most exciting member of the surrealist group during these years of experimentation, revealing his obsession with Freudian psychology and his obsession with his great lover and muse Gala. While the famous image of the jumping girl symbolizes childhood memories, the burning giraffe represents “the male cosmic apocalyptic monster” – a timely premonition of war.

“Dalí painted these monumental panels in a moment of intense discovery and personal expression, as the world around her erupted into conflict. In a nutshell, it is one of the most exciting works by Dalí to hit the market”, explained the global head of the Impressionist and Modern Art department of the India Phillips auction house in a statement.

Dalí joined the surrealist movement in Paris in 1929, year he met Gala who was married at the time to his friend, the surrealist poet and founder of the movement Paul Éluard.

Dalí and Gala's relationship lasted half a century and was controversial. Gala, ten years older than Dalí, was seen as “the force behind the increasing commercialization of the work” of the painter after his rejection of surrealism in 1939.

The Spanish artist signed many of his most significant works, among them the one that will now be auctioned, as “Gala Salvador Dalí”.

In the left panel it is dated as “Gala Salvador Dalí 1937” and the right “Gala Salvador Dalí 1937”, which suggests that it is a representation of the couple.

The work was exhibited in London at the show “Dalí / Duchamp” of the Royal Academy in 2018.

Dalí also painted in 1936 a similar double portrait with the same title on display in the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam.