Unique opportunity to see Dali’s The Twelve Tribes of Israel etchings

Salvador Dali’s The Twelve Tribes of Israel is going on show in London next week. The 1973 set of etchings with handcolouring by Dali, created by him in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the State of Israel, will form part of a Dali exhibition at Shapero Modern in Bond Street from 25 November. The exhibition will include a wide range of works by the Spanish surrealist, but this will be the rarest work on view.

The Twelve Tribes of Israel is a surreal interpretation of biblical prophecy, fusing religious symbolism with the dream logic of the unconscious. Salvador Dalí, known for his bizarre surrealist style inspired by Freudian theories of the subconscious, reimagines scriptural emblems using the same techniques and aesthetics that appear in his wide and complex oeuvre.

In The Twelve Tribes of Israel, Dalí draws on Jacob’s predictions for his sons and leaders of each tribe in Genesis, and Moses’ blessings in Deuteronomy. The interaction of the tribes’ symbols with the landscape lends the piece its eccentric qualities, creating a sense of dissonance and irregularity. Each tribe is depicted through vivid, unnatural colour, exaggerated scale, and dynamic form, crafting symbolic scenes in which the literal and the metaphoric converge.

This set comprises not only the original unique proof copies of the prints, each entirely hand-painted in watercolour by Dalí, double-signed and inscribed, but also the original copper plates used to print the edition. Alongside these is a complete signed set of the cancelled proofs.

The work is accompanied by a copy of the letter from renowned Dali expert Albert Field confirming the authenticity of the works and valuing them. Field wrote the official catalogue of the Graphic Works of Salvador Dali, authorised by Salvador Dali. In the letter, Field notes that all the handcoloured works “are watercolors on etchings. It is my opinion that generally these works are worth more than pencil or ink drawings.”

Working with the intertwined themes of exile and return, icons and faith, Dalí created a suite of images that commemorate the biblical tribes and their ancestral regions. The compositions convey a sense of movement and pilgrimage: transient
figures traverse luminous, expanding landscapes framed by mountains and monuments that evoke the geography and character of each tribe. Beneath the bright, celebratory colour lies a quiet tension, an awareness of impermanence and displacement. Erratic, sketch-like monochrome figures animate the scenes with restlessness and energy. The incongruent style of the unstable figures and the softly coloured, simplified backgrounds resonate with the historical moment in which the works emerged, one that witnessed the return of dispersed communities to a reimagined national landscape.

Salvador Dali: The Graphic Works is at Shapero Modern, Bond Street W1 28 November – 1 February 2026. shaperomodern.com