The paper is devoted to the study of the large body limit of a phase-field model for dislocations, introduced in [M. Koslowski, A. Cuitino and M. Ortiz, “A phase-field theory of dislocation dynamics strain hardening and hysteresis in ductile single crystal”, J. Mech. Phys. Solids 50, No. 12, 2597–2635 (2002; Zbl 1094.74563)].