The Burning Giraffe

Salvador Dalí. The Burning Giraffe. 1937. Oil on canvas. 

I chose this painting because freshman year my roommate, a big Salvador Dalí fan, hung a poster of it in our room and I spent a lot of time looking at it, wondering what it was about. I found it interesting that although the name of the painting is The Burning Giraffe, the giraffe isn’t the focus of the picture. The drawers as part of the body also interested me and after doing more research I found that in Dalí’s earlier work he drew many figures with drawers.  I also like the colors and how the bottom of the painting as well as the top is much darker than the rest of it. After researching more about the painting I found that around the same time Dalí painted this the Spanish Civil War began. Many people believe that this painting was Dalí’s expression of concern for his country.