Dali's Three Kings

I was surprised to discover a version of The Three Kings by Salvador Dali - the Spanish Catalan painter best known for his surrealistic work, with its fantastic imagery and his flamboyant personality together making  him one of the best known artists of the period - the reason Hallmark cards commissioned him in 1959 to do a series of water colour Christmas card designs, one of which was The Three Kings.

Of the ten designs Dali submitted to Hallmark just two were actually produced as cards The Nativity and Madonna and Child, the remaining eight including The Three Kings are languishing in the Hallmark Archives.

Dali's three exotically dressed kings form an odd, disjointed composition as they follow a Platonic solid star in a barren rocky landscape, with the leading King's camel looking fearsomely aggressive while the Black King's camel holds its head high - aloof - indifferent to all around, while the remaining king's camel seems more horse than camel, the net effect is oddly disturbing!

The reasons not all Dali's designed became Hallmark Christmas cards was that they too, were equally troubling or odd mostly both! One image - Headless Angel Playing a Lute - was particularly disturbing but it clearly shows Dali's Renaissance influences as its source is Piero della Francesca work.

Left  Piero della Francesca (1470-5) The Nativity

Right Salvador Dali, Hallmark (1959 ) Christmas Card Design

Hallmark commissioned other noted artists to do Christmas card designs including Pablo Picasso, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh and Georgia O’Keeffe so maybe there are other Three Kings to be found in their archives, meanwhile we can enjoy the Dali's oddly disturbing Three Kings.

References
Washington Post. 2014. Salvador Dali Christmas cards. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/23/these-salvador-dali-christmas-cards-outraged-hallmark-shoppers-in-1960/?utm_term=.44a0ddc26eae. [Accessed 21 December 2017].