Salvador Dalí – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — Plate XII (1969)

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — Plate XII (1969)

Artist: Salvador Dalí
Title: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland — Plate XII
Series: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Portfolio (1969)
Year: 1969
Medium: Heliogravure in colours on Mandeure paper
Image Size: 39.4 × 26.7 cm (15 1/2 × 10 1/2 in)
Sheet Size: 43.2 × 29.2 cm (17 × 11 1/2 in)
Edition: 2,500 — this example: 1,650/2,500
Signature: Signed “Dalí / 1968” in plate
Watermark: Mandeure
Printer: Princeton University Press, New Jersey
Publisher: Maecenas Press — Random House, New York
Frame: Unframed
Type: Limited edition heliogravure — from the complete Alice portfolio

Description : 

Plate XII is the most graphically complex and heraldically rich image in the portfolio — a composition built around the playing card figures of Carroll’s Queen of Hearts court, rendered by Dalí with the full force of his surrealist reimagining of the conventions of Western iconography. Two towering figures in feathered black gowns — card soldiers or court attendants, their heads golden-crowned and faceless — flank the composition, their scaled lower bodies rooted in the pale ground like columns. Between them, two playing cards float at mid-composition: at left, the Queen of Hearts rendered in brilliant red, blue and gold — a Dalí-designed court figure whose costume combines chessboard patterning with surrealist anatomical distortion; at right, the Jack of Diamonds in blue, yellow, and burgundy, equally elaborate and equally impossible.

At the centre between the cards, a minimal dark figure — barely materialised, a shadow more than a body — stands with the stillness of someone who has just been accused. Behind all three figures, a thin blue line of distant landscape runs horizontally — the Dalínian horizon that appears throughout the portfolio as a reminder that beyond Wonderland’s impossible interior, a world of ordinary sky and land persists. At lower left, a tiny golden figure in motion provides the human scale against which the towering card-figures assert their monstrous authority. The date “1968” appears upper centre — one of the few plates in the portfolio to bear both the date and the signature so prominently.

Printed by Princeton University Press on Mandeure paper and published by Maecenas Press / Random House, New York, 1969.

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FAQ

Is this an original Dalí print?
Yes — an original heliogravure in colours on Mandeure paper, signed “Dalí / 1968” in the plate, from the 1969 Maecenas Press / Random House edition of 2,500.

What is the edition size?
2,500 impressions — this example is number 1,650.

Can I acquire the complete portfolio?
Yes — the complete set of 14 framed prints plus the first edition book is available separately. Contact us for details.

What is a heliogravure?
A photomechanical intaglio printing technique of exceptional tonal range and chromatic subtlety — one of the finest reproductive processes in the history of fine art printing.

Is the work framed?
No — sold unframed. Please contact us for framing options.

Do you ship internationally?
Yes — worldwide, with museum-grade flat packaging, full insurance, and shipment tracking.

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