The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali
Salvador Dali painted The Persistence of Memory in 1931. It consists of oil on canvas, its dimensions are 9 1/2” x 13”, and it is formatted horizontally. The painting is currently displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and has been there since 1934.
There is a flat, dark brown landscape in the middle ground, taking up most of the painting, and it is what many of the paintings’ objects are placed upon. In the background and to the right, there is a relatively large rock formation with jagged hills and cliffs that are a mixture of light brown, yellow, and faded blue and green. The light source appears to be coming from the right of the painting, although it is not visible. The walls of the cliffs consist of gradual changes between shades of yellow and brown, and the light source creates highlights on the edges of the jagged cliffs. The rock formation is cropped to the right side of the painting, and continues into about a third of the painting. In front of the rock formation and continuing to the left side of the painting is a still water surface mirroring the image of the rock formation and also the sky above it, which is medium blue at the top of the painting (the sky also is cropped) and fades to a pale yellow towards the bottom. However, the color of the water is generally a light shade of blue with occasional white tones mixed in. Where the ground comes in from the water, and to the leftmost side of the picture, there is a flat, thin rectangular prism-like object that seems to just sit on top of or be embedded into the ground. The object’s surface is also reflective and metallic, as it matches the blue color of the sky above it, with gradual changes of gray and white. The two visible sides of the rectangular object are a mixture of brown and faded orange, much like the ground surrounding it. This object is cropped to the left edge, and is viewed at a three-quarters view and at a slight elevation. In front of this rectangular object, there is a small rock that is painted solid gray with a dark-gray shadow. Stretching from the rectangular object to the absolute foreground, the ground covers about one-third of the painting, and is generally a dark-brown color except for a patch of mid-tone brown near the top-left corner of the ground area.
Cropped at the bottom-left corner of the painting and extending to about a fourth of the canvas length-wise and a little over half height-wise, there is a brown rectangular prism on which there are several objects. The first object is an shiny orange watch that is lying face-down on the big brown rectangular object, and considering that the top of the watch has an oval-shaped knob, the watch is tilted about 45 degrees clockwise. The watch has little highlights around its upper edge facing the light source, showing its luster, and the whole edge around it is painted darker than the rest of the watch, showing its shadows and mid-tone color. On top of the watch, there are about 15-20 black ants all crawling towards the center of the watch. Each of the ants has a glossy black effect, because they all have tiny white highlights on their bodies. In the area around the orange watch, there is a shadow that appears too large to be cast by the watch alone, implying that there is an object not in sight that is blocking the light source. The shadow is a dark brown color that appears to be the same as the color of the flat landscape in the middle-ground. A little up and to the right of the orange watch, there is another watch, only this watch is lying face-up, half of it is hanging off the edge (the watch appears to be either of a soft material or melting), and its color is a golden-yellow. This watch is tilted about 70 degrees counter-clockwise, which is shown by the knob on top of the watch and also by the numbers on the face of the watch. For the half that is lying on the rectangular object, its side of the watch face is painted a mid-tone blue, and for the half that is hanging over the edge, its side is a lighter sky-blue. The numbers on the watch and the lines indicating the minutes are black, and some of the numbers are slightly twisted due to the watch’s distortion. The hands on the watch are also painted black, and are placed at a 90 degree intersection; the minute hand is pointing directly left, and the hour hand is pointing directly down. The rim of the watch and its knob are painted golden-yellow, with its shadows ranging from dark, faded yellow to brown, and its main color being a light golden-yellow. This watch also casts a close shadow behind it. Above this watch and to the left, right near the back edge of the rectangular object, there is a small, single-branched tree that just sits on the object. The tree curves up to the right slightly and then straightens out vertically, appearing to be hollow because of the dark-gray hole on top of the tree. It is generally painted gray, with light vertical lines of dark gray and black to show the ridges and shadows of the tree. A little more than half the way up the tree, there is a branch about the same length as the tree itself jutting out to the right and reaching nearly the mid-length of the canvas. This branch has a much smaller branch jutting out of the top of the first branch. To the right of where this smaller branch is jutting out, there is another soft watch draped over the larger branch. It is draped over face-up, and the bottom half of the watch is in front, exposing the watch’s face, and the top half of the watch is in the back, exposing the back of the watch. The color of this watch’s rim, knob, and back is silver, shown by its shades of gray, dark-gray, and white. The watch’s face is a faded blue-gray, showing a combination of reflecting the blue sky and having a shadow cast upon it. Its numbers are black, and its only visible hand (which points to the number “6”) appears to be red-brown, although it is too thin to tell exactly.
