The Persistence of Memory

Salvador Dalí's melting watches have become one of the most recognizable images in modern art. Painted in 1931, The Persistence of Memory shows a barren coastal landscape where soft watches drape over a tree branch, a rectangular block, and a strange fleshy creature that may be a self-portrait. Hard and soft, time and timelessness, reality and dream blend into a single unsettling vision.

Dalí described his working method as "paranoiac-critical," a technique of self-induced hallucination that allowed him to paint dreams with photographic precision. The landscape is Port Lligat on the Catalan coast, where Dalí lived with his wife Gala. The cliffs in the background are real; the melting watches emerged, according to the artist, from watching Camembert cheese soften in the sun.

The painting measures only about 9.5 by 13 inches, yet its influence on Surrealism and popular culture has been enormous. Today it hangs at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, where visitors often express surprise at how small this monumental image actually is.