In 1938, Dali created a surrealist pavilion for the New York 1939 World's Fair. Charged with promoting it, the photographer Horst P. Horst took a series of photographs like this one of a model wearing only Schiaparelli's “Constellation” necklace. Dali painted the photograph to transform the model into a surrealist siren.
The surrealist pavilion, called Dream of Venus, recalled diverse aspects of Schiaparelli's work. In 1935, for the legendary Bal des tableaux célèbres (Ball of Famous Paintings), she dressed the Viscountess Benoist d'Azy to give the impression that she was naked, like the Venus of Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.