Salvador Dalí – The Messiah

Title: The Messiah

Portfolio: New Jerusalem Suite

Medium: Lithograph in Colors on Arches Paper

Year: 1980

Sheet Size: 28" x 21"  |  Frame Size: 37" x 30"

Edition Number: H.C. 8/65

Signature: Signed in pencil

Ref: Field 80-1A

The Messiah is a luminous color lithograph from Dalí's New Jerusalem Suite, a portfolio steeped in mysticism, spiritual longing, and the artist's lifelong fascination with sacred imagery. Created in 1980 and presented as a hors commerce impression — one of just 65 — this work reflects Dalí's mature engagement with themes of redemption and transcendence, rendered with the chromatic richness and visionary intensity that define his finest graphic work. The figure of the Messiah, filtered through Dalí's surrealist sensibility, emerges as both icon and apparition, hovering between the devotional and the dreamlike.

Printed in colors on Arches paper and presented in its original frame (37" x 30"), this pencil-signed impression is catalogued as Field 80-1A, placing it firmly within the scholarly record of Dalí's graphic oeuvre. The New Jerusalem Suite ranks among the most spiritually ambitious of his print portfolios, drawing on Kabbalistic, Christian, and universalist traditions to envision a world redeemed and transfigured.

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) stands as one of the most iconic and provocative figures of the twentieth century. Born in Figueres, Catalonia, Dalí became the defining voice of Surrealism, channeling the imagery of dreams, desire, and the subconscious into paintings, sculptures, and prints of extraordinary technical mastery. His printmaking practice — spanning etchings, lithographs, and woodcuts — allowed him to reach collectors worldwide, translating his hallucinatory vision into intimate, hand-signed editions. Works such as The Persistence of Memory cemented his place in art history, while his graphic suites demonstrated a virtuosity and wit that remain unmatched. Dalí's prints are held in major museum collections globally and continue to command significant attention at auction and in the finest private collections.