The Persistence of Memory

The Persistence of Memory is a painting by Salvador Dalí. It is one of the most well-known surrealistic paintings. It depicts a gloomy dreamscape in which soft melting pocket watches are displayed. It's a very small painting with dimensions of only 24 cm × 33 cm (9.5 in × 13 in).

There have been many interpretations about The Persistence of Memory, art critic Dawn Ades wrote that “the soft watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time”, this suggests that Dalí was inspired by Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity. However when Dalí was asked about this he replied that the soft watches were not inspired by the theory of relativity, but by the surrealist perception of a Camembert cheese melting in the heat of the sun.