In 1931, while eating camembert cheese and suffering from a painful headache, Salvador Dali was struck with the inspiration for one of the most recognizable paintings of the 20th century. The Persistence of Memory is Dali’s most celebrated work and helped introduce surrealism to mainstream America.

Dali, a master of the surreal, combines the ethereal cliffs of Catalonia with the surreal melting clocks that have become synonymous with Dali’s greatest works. Inspired by the camembert cheese he was eating at the time, Dali painted clocks that exhibited a gooey softness. In Dali’s painting, time, a dependable force, becomes malleable and irrational. Dali’s masterpiece evokes imagination and invites conversation. The Persistence of Memory juxtaposes the everyday with the extraordinary. The painting can be viewed as a landscape, a self-portrait, and a still life. The painting is rich in both symbolism and detail and has been confounding viewers and stimulating conversation since being unveiled to the public. Salvador Dali wrote that his surreal works were akin to “hand-painted dream photographs” and The Persistence of Memory is no exception.

The Persistence of Memory has been on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1934, however, you can own authentic reproduction by ordering with Art Revived now.