It’s an unlikely collaboration: the avant-garde Surrealist Salvador Dali was first invited to create a set of Christmas cards by American card manufacturer Hallmark in 1948. Dali, who had moved to the US in 1940 and had become a devout Catholic by then, didn’t have any issue producing commercial artwork – but that didn’t mean he would water down his radical ideas. His takes on the traditional festive Christian images of an angel, Madonna and Child and Three Wise Men proved too out there for Hallmark and never saw the light of day. This watercolour work was created ten years later, when Hallmark commissioned Dali again, this time to create a set of seven greeting cards for various celebrations. The Christmas tree which features a butterfly motif – found in all of the paintings he created for this series – an otherworldly symbol representing the soul. Yet despite Dali’s renown and fame, only three of the watercolours were produced as cards in the end. We think it’s time to bring them back.

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