Dalí held his first exhibition at the Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona in 1925, before making his first trip to Paris and turning towards Surrealism. One of the most outstanding paintings in the exhibition, considered one of the best from his early period, is this portrait of his father. Dalí concentrated on the severe expression of the face and, especially in the piercing eyes, on the forceful character of his father, a notary in Figueres, with whom he had a difficult relationship. The technical mastery the young painter had achieved at that time can be seen in the cleanly drawn outlines, the treatment of light and shade and the expressive power of the sombre tones.