Which Salvador Dalí painting from 1937 shows a giraffe engulfed in flames?

Salvador Dalí’s 1937 painting showing a giraffe engulfed in flames is The Burning Giraffe.

Dalí painted the work in oil on panel during the Spanish Civil War, a period when violence and political anxiety strongly influenced his imagery. The burning giraffe had appeared in Dalí’s earlier work, including his 1936 painting The Invention of Monsters, before becoming a central symbol here.

The composition includes two elongated, partly opened human figures with crutch-like supports and drawers emerging from their bodies. These figures reflect Dalí’s interest in hidden psychological states and the writings of Sigmund Freud. The barren landscape and distant flames intensify the unsettling atmosphere.

The painting is often discussed alongside Dalí’s other wartime works, especially Premonition of Civil War. Although its title is straightforward, viewers sometimes confuse it with Dalí’s later painting The Temptation of Saint Anthony, which also features strikingly elongated legs and surreal animal imagery.