Twelve Springs

Twelve Springs stops you in your tracks. Painted by Francis Picabia in 1938, this extraordinary work presents a mythic, composite creature set against a sky of loose, painterly blue, flanked by angular mountain forms in warm ochre, white, and terracotta. At its heart is a bold black bird-like figure with a sharp open beak, a watchful white eye, and ribbed wings spread low across the canvas floor. Outlined in a confident red-orange contour line that traces the profile of a larger, almost human silhouette around it, the figure reads simultaneously as beast, spirit, and ancient deity. Rising from within this outline, a teal green plant crowned with a spiky solar disc and a tiny inscribed face completes the image, adding a layer of botanical mysticism to an already richly layered composition.

By 1938, Picabia was operating in a creative space entirely his own. Having long since shed the labels of Dada and Surrealism, he was building a visual language that drew freely from primitive art, mythology, and his own restless imagination. Twelve Springs reflects this perfectly. The word Elim inscribed in the upper left corner, carries biblical resonance, Elim being the oasis of twelve springs and seventy palm trees described in the Book of Exodus, a place of rest and abundance after the desert. Whether Picabia intended this directly or used the word for its sound and mystery alone is left beautifully open, which is entirely in keeping with how he worked.

The composition is constructed with a deceptive looseness that rewards careful looking. The red outline that defines the larger profile form is bold and graphic, almost like a cave drawing scaled up to canvas size, while the interior is densely layered with overlapping creatures, the open-beaked bird, a smaller crouching figure at the lower right, and the green plant rising through the centre like a spine or a totem. The background shifts between sky blue, raw white, and warm amber in a way that feels both atmospheric and deliberately unfinished, as though the world around these figures is still being decided.

This Huecraft archival fine art print is produced on museum-grade stock with premium pigment inks that capture every tonal layer of this complex, richly coloured composition. From the deep blacks and vivid teal to the warm ochre background and bold terracotta outlines, every element is reproduced with the colour fidelity and archival permanence this remarkable work deserves.

On your walls, Twelve Springs brings a rare combination of raw energy and visual intelligence. The earthy ochre, black, teal, and terracotta palette works beautifully against warm white, deep charcoal, olive green, and natural wood interiors. It is an outstanding choice for a statement living room, a dining room with character, a creative studio, or a bar and hospitality space where you want art that sparks genuine curiosity and conversation every single time.