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Salvador Dalí · Lovenhall Art

Authenticate Salvador Dalí — Divine Comedy

A large authorised woodcut suite, and a widely reproduced one.

Figueres

The Divine Comedy is one of Dalí's major authorised graphic projects — a large suite of colour woodcuts illustrating Dante, produced with a documented publisher and recorded in the catalogues. That documentation is precisely why it is a safer part of the market than most Dalí prints.

Genuine impressions are woodcuts, and a woodcut shows the character of the cut block: ink laid from a carved surface with slightly uneven density and no dot structure. Photomechanical reproductions of the same images exist in quantity and show a dot grid under a loupe.

Because the suite is large, individual sheets circulate separated from the whole. A single sheet is a legitimate object; a single sheet described as a complete suite is not.

The market

What a Divine Comedy does on the secondary market

One of the more liquid authorised Dalí editions, priced per sheet with complete suites at a premium. Reproductions of the same images have decorative value only.

An orientation for honest, unrestored condition — never an appraisal, and never a quotation.

Questions we are asked

How can I tell a Divine Comedy woodcut from a reproduction?
A woodcut shows ink laid from a carved block with slightly uneven density and no dot structure. Photomechanical reproductions of the same images exist in quantity and show a dot grid under a loupe.
Is a single Divine Comedy sheet worth buying?
Individual sheets circulate legitimately, separated from the suite, and are priced per sheet with complete suites at a premium. A single sheet described as a complete suite is not.
All the Salvador Dalí checks
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Read the work itself

The checks tell you how it was made. The instrument tells you what it appears to be, and roughly what its kind fetches.

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