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The Souls

The Souls' is Damien Hirst's 2010 series of foil block butterfly prints, published jointly by Paul Stolper and Other Criteria: four images in 80 colourways. Each colourway was editioned at 15, with five artist's proofs, and printed in two or three foils on a 72 x 51 cm sheet of Arches 88 paper.

All The Souls Works By Damien Hirst (75)

Significance & Analysis

The Souls' was made to be seen together. Hirst conceived the prints as one installation, a gallery filled with butterflies, and as the counterpart to the foil block skulls he had just finished. He explained the pairing simply: "you can't have one without the other".

Why 'Souls'

The title draws on one of the oldest symbols in art. In ancient Greek, psyche was the word for both the soul and the butterfly, and the insect was imagined as the soul leaving the body at death. Hirst uses it the same way: bright, fragile and short-lived, the butterfly is his image of how briefly life lasts, and of what might outlast it. He said the title made him think of Judgment Day and Jacob's ladder, the biblical stairway between earth and heaven. He hoped the butterflies would "look like people, individual and unique", all "trying to get to heaven I guess, ...or hell".

Four butterflies, many foils

The series rests on four images, titled 'The Souls I' to 'The Souls IV'. Each was printed again and again with different combinations of metallic and coloured foils, and the titles name them: oriental gold, silver gloss, Westminster blue, loganberry pink, raven black. The butterfly spans about 42.5 cm across the middle of an upright sheet, far larger than life.

Foil suited the subject. Hirst said he loves butterflies "because when they are dead they look alive", and that foil gives the prints a feel close to real wings in the way they reflect light. The surface shifts as the viewer moves, so two colourways of the same image can look like different insects.

The installation

The prints were first shown at Paul Stolper in London from 7 October to 13 November 2010. Hirst wanted to use all the available space, because "many souls work better than one". He had in mind pictures of a Warhol show in which small flower paintings covered the walls.

At auction

The strongest result came in March 2026, when 'The Souls III (Leaf Green/Silver Gloss/Raven Black)' sold for £19,200 with fees in Sotheby's Prints & Multiples sale, a record for a single print from the series. Most colourways sell in the mid-thousands. 'The Souls II - Turquoise/Oriental Gold/Silver Gloss' made £7,560 in June 2022 at Phillips London, fees included, and in New York the following year 'The Souls IV - Chocolate/Silver Gloss/Leaf Green' reached $6,350 at Phillips.

Before and after

The series is preceded by The Dead of 2009, a portfolio of 30 skulls printed in foil block on the same sheet size and in the same edition of 15. 'The Souls' supplied the butterflies to stand beside those skulls. Hirst kept using foil for butterflies afterwards, for example in I Love You, released in 2015, which combines foil block butterflies with silkscreen.

How Many Prints Make Up The Souls?

Four images were printed in 80 colourways, and each colourway is an edition of 15 with five artist's proofs. That gives 1,200 numbered prints and 400 proofs across the series. The image number (I to IV) and the list of foils in the title together identify a colourway, so both need to match when comparing two prints.

Why Are Butterflies Linked To Death In Hirst's Work?

The link goes back to his first solo show in London, 'In and Out of Love' in 1991. In one room, butterflies hatched from pupae fixed to blank canvases, fed on sugar water and died in the gallery; downstairs, dead butterflies were set into gloss paint. Hirst described the work as being about life and death, and about butterflies "still being beautiful even when dead". 'The Souls' carries that tension into print.

What Does Blind Impression Mean In The Souls Titles?

It marks a colourway in which one printing block was pressed into the paper without any foil. The shape it leaves is embossed but uncoloured, so part of the butterfly shows as raised white relief beside the foiled areas. It is part of the edition as issued, not a printing fault, and is named in the title in place of a foil.

Where Are The Souls Prints Signed?

On the front. Hirst signed and numbered each sheet in pencil below the image, with the number out of 15 or marked as an artist's proof. Some examples also carry an Other Criteria label on the back. Sheets measure about 72 x 51 cm, with the butterfly printed landscape across the centre and wide margins above and below.

Is There A Smaller Version Of The Souls?

Yes. The deluxe edition of the book 'The Souls', published by Paul Stolper and Other Criteria, contains an original three-colour foil block butterfly, signed and numbered by Hirst in an edition of 100. Its image is about 23.5 x 14 cm, much smaller than the gallery prints, and the book reproduces the full series with four foil inserts showing the colours used.