Dalí’s home in Port Lligat, a small bay near Cadaqués, had a bedroom with windows that faced east toward the Mediterranean Sea. Because of the home’s strategic location, the first rays of sunlight would stream into Dalí’s bedroom each morning, filling the room with light at dawn.

This experience of waking up to the sunrise was deeply symbolic for Dalí, who was captivated by the dramatic effect of light on landscapes and objects. To him, it reinforced a sense of being in a place both beautiful and mystically charged, at the very edge of Spain, where the new day quite literally "began."

Dalí, never one to miss a dramatic narrative, claimed that this made him the "first Spaniard" to see the sun every day, a statement that was partly true and partly playful. This daily ritual of being bathed in the first light inspired Dalí and infused his art, reinforcing his fascination with surrealism, perception, and the interaction between nature and the human mind. The symbolism of the sunrise, with its themes of renewal and revelation, also resonates in his works, which often play with light, shadow, and surreal interpretations of time and space.

In his own eccentric way, Dalí transformed this simple geographic fact into a poetic, almost mythical experience—one in which he saw himself not just as an artist, but as a privileged observer of nature’s first light, setting him apart from other Spaniards and perhaps even other artists.