Sorry about the late double post, I accidentally sent out a draft version of this newsletter instead of the final version. Whoops 😅

If you're new to this newsletter here’s how it works:

Each morning I spend a few minutes searching the internet for an old painting or similar that I think looks cool (professional I know). Today it was this painting of drippy clocks that you may have seen before:

(View the full sized image here)

I then give identifying info about the work to Perplexity with the instructions to research it and tell me all the interesting things it can about said work.

The Melting Timepieces: Exploring Dalí's "The Persistence of Memory"

In a barren landscape where time itself seems to lose its rigidity, pocket watches droop languidly over various surfaces as if they were made of soft cheese rather than metal. A dead tree extends its solitary branch, providing a perch for one of these melting timepieces. Nearby, another watch drapes itself over a strange, fleshy form—a distorted human face in profile, seemingly asleep in this dreamlike scene. Tiny ants swarm over a closed golden timepiece with unusual fascination, while the distant cliffs of a coastal shoreline create an eerie backdrop. Welcome to Salvador Dalí's surrealist masterpiece, "The Persistence of Memory."

A Painting by Many Names

Known in its original Spanish as "La persistencia de la memoria" and in Catalan as "La persistència de la memòria," this iconic 1931 work has also earned several descriptive nicknames including "The Melting Clocks," "The Soft Watches," and "The Melting Watches". Despite its enormous cultural impact, the painting itself is surprisingly small—measuring just 24 cm × 33 cm (9.5 in × 13 in), barely larger than a standard sheet of computer paper.

Dreams of Melting Cheese

The story behind this surrealist masterpiece's creation involves an unlikely inspiration: cheese! While many art historians have speculated that Dalí's melting watches were a response to Einstein's theory of relativity (suggesting the fluidity of time and space), the artist himself offered a much more whimsical explanation. When asked about his inspiration, Dalí responded that the soft watches were not inspired by scientific theory but rather by "the surrealist perception of a Camembert melting in the sun". He later described them as representing "the camembert of time" due to their resemblance to ripened cheese.

A Landscape of Dreams and Nightmares

The seemingly random elements in "The Persistence of Memory" each carry symbolic significance. The barren setting wasn't merely imagined—it was based on the coastline of Catalonia, Dalí's homeland, with the recognizable landmark of Mount Pani casting its shadow upon the beach. The bizarre fleshy creature at the center is actually Dalí himself, a distorted self-portrait that appears in other works like "The Great Masturbator" (1929).

Even the ants swarming over one watch aren't random—they represent decay and death, reflecting one of Dalí's personal phobias. The artist frequently incorporated ants into his paintings as symbols of mortality and his own well-documented fear of insects. Each element, while dreamlike, was painted with meticulous precision, creating what Dalí himself described as his attempt "to materialize the images of my concrete irrationality with the most imperialist fury of precision".

The Method Behind the Madness

The year before creating "The Persistence of Memory," Dalí developed what he called his "paranoiac-critical method"—a technique where he deliberately induced hallucinatory states to access his subconscious as a source of artistic inspiration. This wasn't mere artistic posturing; Dalí genuinely believed in exploring the boundaries between reality and dream.

Through this method, Dalí would self-induce a hypnotic, trance-like state that allowed him to break free from rational thought. Once untethered from reality, the visions for his paintings would begin to materialize. This approach aligned perfectly with Surrealism's foundational principles, which André Breton had defined in 1924 as "a pure psychic automatism, in the absence of any control exercised by reason".

A Meditation on Time

At its core, "The Persistence of Memory" challenges our understanding of time's permanence. The soft watches mock the rigidity of chronometric time, suggesting that our perception of time is subjective rather than absolute. As art critic Dawn Adès noted, "The soft watches are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time, a Surrealist meditation on the collapse of our notions of a fixed cosmic order".

The painting seems to ask: Are we at the mercy of time? Can time bend and stretch like Dalí's watches? The artist suggests that while time passes, memories persist—a concept reflected in the work's title. The juxtaposition of soft, malleable watches against the hard landscape creates a visual tension that epitomizes Dalí's theory of "softness" and "hardness," which was central to his thinking at the time.

Historical Context: A World in Flux

When Dalí painted "The Persistence of Memory" in 1931, Spain was experiencing great political instability. The country was in the early days of the Second Spanish Republic, a period that would soon be disrupted by the Civil War in 1936, eventually leading to Franco's dictatorship in 1939. Spain was caught between two totalitarian regimes and experiencing widespread poverty.

This painting emerged in the aftermath of World War I, whose unprecedented brutality had given rise to artistic movements that rejected conventional traditions. First came Dadaism, born from disgust with the established order, followed by Surrealism, which sought to explore the unconscious mind. Dalí's dreamlike landscapes and melting watches perfectly embodied this new artistic sensibility that valued psychological truth over literal representation.

A Cultural Phenomenon

Almost immediately after its creation, "The Persistence of Memory" gained significant attention. First exhibited at the Julien Levy Gallery in 1932, the painting was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1934 through an anonymous donor, where it has remained one of the museum's main attractions ever since.

Like Van Gogh's "Starry Night" or Picasso's "Les Demoiselles D'Avignon," Dalí's melting clocks have transcended the art world to become cultural icons recognized even by those unfamiliar with Surrealism or art history. The image has been referenced and parodied countless times in popular culture, and Dalí himself created variations on the theme, including "The Persistence of Memory Tapestry" (1975) and even painted a sequel in 1954.

The Man Behind the Melting Clocks

Salvador Dalí was a Catalan Spanish artist who became one of the most important painters of the 20th century. Born in Figueres, Catalonia, he divided his time between his birthplace, Paris, and New York, gaining wealth and fame for his distinctive Surrealist vision. Beyond painting, he was an accomplished sculptor, draftsman, and designer whose imagery influenced not just the art world but also fashion, advertising, theater, and film.

In 1922, Dalí went to study in Madrid at the Residencia de Estudiantes, where he formed lifelong artistic partnerships with figures like filmmaker Luis Buñuel and poet Federico García Lorca. By the time he painted "The Persistence of Memory" in 1931, he was just 28 years old and formally involved with the Surrealist movement.

Dalí was fascinatingly self-aware about his methods, once remarking, "The difference between a madman and me is that I am not mad". This quote highlights his conscious engagement with what others might view as insanity. His confidence in his artistic identity was equally remarkable, leading him to declare simply: "I am Surrealism".

Through "The Persistence of Memory," this eccentric genius created not just a painting but a visual metaphor that continues to challenge our perception of reality, time, and consciousness—proving that while watches may melt, great art truly persists.

And that's it!

If you have any details you think Perplexity left out, reply to this email and I'll adjust my prompt to nudge it to include it next time.

This blog was part of my daily newsletter. You can subscribe to it here.

Thanks for reading!

-JP

Current prompt: I want you to create a newsletter post describing the fun and exciting stories around a painting. It should be a newsletter read for leisure and should be an enjoyable read (not just a list of facts) here's what you’re gonna do: Find the name of the following painting in its original language and any alternative names it goes by. Then Research the painting and give me blurb telling me all you can about the artist, the historical context/events it was created in, the style, the materials used, the composition and visual elements, the story/underlying message, what inspired the work/what it meant to the author, and whatever other info you find that helps give a complete understanding of the work. A description of what is depicted (mention subjects) should be the first thing, while the “biography” of the artist should be last. if the work has a lot of meaning behind it, then that is what the meat of the newsletter should be. Besides that you are free to present the information in a concise and captivating way, with the most interesting and novel stuff closest to the top. Order the presentation of information for which pieces have the most compelling and interesting story to tell. At least some of the description should be formatted like a story. [for example: a couple sits on a bench watching the sunset while a man next to them…]. ONLY include information that is for THIS SPECIFIC PAINTING. you will find info on paintings similar to this one but NOT this one. OMMIT INFO ABOUT SUCH PIECES. remember, the goal is to make the most compelling, intriguing, and fun to read newsletter as possible, so keep that above all else.