Salvador Dali Royal Insect Signed 1974 Monumental Color Lithograph

Artist: Salvador Dali
Title: Royal Insect, from Vitraux in Four Sheets
Medium: Lithograph in Colors on Arches Paper, spread across 4 sheets
Size: Approximately 49" x 53" overall. The composition is spread across 4 individual sheets: The two small vertical pieces are 25.5" x 19", and the two large horizontal pieces are 25.75" x 35.875"
Edition: 9/250
Year: 1974
Inscription: Pencil signed and numbered
Printer: Grapholith, Paris
Publisher: Jacques Carpentier, Paris
Literature: Michler/Löpsinger 1446; Field 74-10 Q.
Documentation: Includes Gallery Certificate of Authenticity

Salvador Dalí's "Royal Insect", executed in 1974 as part of the portfolio Vitraux in Four Sheets, presents a monumental surrealist composition assembled from four individual lithographic sheets, forming a work approximately 49 by 53 inches when displayed together. The scale and segmented, multi-panel structure evoke the visual logic of stained glass windows, a reference embedded in the portfolio's French title, translating the luminous compartmentalization of ecclesiastical glasswork into the medium of color lithography.

The composition depicts a fantastical, hybridized creature combining insect and mammalian anatomy, its elongated body culminating in a melting, clock-faced form, a direct reference to the soft watches of Dalí's celebrated The Persistence of Memory. An ornate, crown-like structure surmounts the figure's head, lending the creature a regal presence that accounts for the work's title, while a chalice-like vessel and scattered bone fragments introduce additional symbolic elements associated with Dalí's broader visual vocabulary of decay, transformation, and the passage of time. The creature's spindly, articulated legs and richly colored, faceted surface patterning reflect Dalí's late-career interest in decorative surface complexity alongside his enduring biomorphic and entomological imagery, insects recurring throughout his oeuvre as symbols of both anxiety and metamorphosis.

Printed by Grapholith in Paris and published by Jacques Carpentier, also of Paris, the work is pencil signed and numbered by the artist, with the present example numbered 9 of an edition of 250. Individual sheet sizes vary, comprising two vertical sheets measuring 25 1/2 by 19 inches and two horizontal sheets measuring 25 3/4 by 35 7/8 inches. The lithograph is documented in the catalogues raisonnes of Michler/Lopsinger (1446) and Field (74-10 Q), and is accompanied by a gallery Certificate of Authenticity.

Owing to its considerable assembled scale, "Royal Insect" stands among the more ambitious and visually commanding examples of Dalí's later printmaking output, translating the intimate detail of his surrealist imagery into a work of genuinely architectural presence.

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About Salvador Dali

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) was a Spanish artist and one of the most prominent figures of the Surrealist movement, renowned for his technically precise paintings depicting dreamlike, irrational imagery. Born in Figueres, Catalonia, Dalí demonstrated artistic talent from an early age and studied at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, where he was exposed to Cubism, Futurism, and Metaphysical painting before developing his own distinctive style.

Dalí formally joined the Surrealist movement in Paris in 1929, quickly becoming one of its most recognizable proponents. Drawing on Freudian theories of the unconscious, he developed what he termed the "paranoiac-critical method," a self-induced hallucinatory process intended to access irrational imagery for use in his work. This approach produced some of his most celebrated paintings, including The Persistence of Memory (1931), instantly recognizable for its melting clocks and desolate landscape.

Beyond painting, Dalí worked extensively across sculpture, printmaking, film, and design, collaborating with figures such as filmmaker Luis Buñuel and director Alfred Hitchcock. His flamboyant public persona, marked by his distinctive waxed mustache and theatrical behavior, further cemented his cultural visibility throughout the twentieth century.

Dalí's relationship with the Surrealist group grew strained over ideological and political disagreements, leading to his formal expulsion in 1934, though he continued producing Surrealist-influenced work throughout his career. He returned to Spain later in life, establishing the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres. Dalí's work remains held in major museum collections worldwide, securing his legacy as one of the twentieth century's most influential and provocative artists.