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For an analysis of the work, look for below the thumbnail


 
Oedipus Complex, 1930

- pastel on paper -
- 61.3 x 50.2 cm -
- San Francisco Museum of Modern Art -

 
 

 
Paranoiac Woman-Horse, 1930

- oil on canvas -
- 50.2 x 65.2 cm -
- Paris, Musee National d'Art, Moderne, Centre Georges, Pompidou -

 
 

 
Portrait of Mr. Emilio Terry (unfinished), 1930

- oil on panel -
- 50 x 54 cm -
- private collection -

 
 

 
Premature Ossification of a Railway Station, 1930

- oil on canvas -
- 27 x 31.5 cm -
- private collection -


One year before The Pesistence of Memory, a soft watch made its first appearance. The scene's desolation contrasts with the dynamic character associated with a railway station, thus converting it into a metaphysical landscape like the ones that often appear in Dalí's works of the early thirties.

 

 
Vertigo, 1930

- oil on canvas -
- 60 x 50 cm -
- private collection -


In one of the best examples of de Chirico's influence, the shadow projected by an enigmatic figure outside the picture is a hovering menace, as is the ball in unstable equilibrium. The couple, emblem of love and death, and the lion's head also appear in The Great Masturbator, 1929 and other canvases of the same period.

 

 
William Tell, 1930

- oil and collage on canvas -
- 113 x 87 cm -
- private collection -

 
 

 
Board of Demented Associations (Fireworks), circa 1931

- oil on embossed tin -
- 40 x 65.5 cm -
- the dedication reads 'Painted for Paul Eluard by his friend Salvador Dalí' -

 
 

 
Combinations (or The Combined Dalínian Phantasms: Ants, Keys, Nails), 1931

- gouache on paper -
- 14 x 9 cm -
- New York, Collection Klaus G., Perls -

 
 

 
Diurnal Illusion: the Shadow of a Grand Piano Approaching, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 34.5 x 25.4 cm -
- private collection -

 
 

 
The Dream, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 100 x 100 cm -
- (former Félix Labisse collection) -

 
 
Poster

 
Gradiva, 1931

- material and dimensions unknown -
- private collection -

 
 

 
Gradiva Finds the Anthropomorphic Ruins, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 65 x 54 cm -
- Foundation Thyssen-Bornemisza, Museo Thyssen, Madrid -


Petrification is the extreme opposite of the soft-objects theme. Ruins evoking various meaning link Dalí with the sinister and melancholy vein of Northern Romanticism, in the manner of Arnold Bocklin and the Symbolist painters.

 

 
Landscape, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 24 x 33 cm -
- private collection -

 
 

 
Le Spectre et le Fantome, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 100 x 73 cm -
- Christie's, London -

 
 

 
Mme. Reese, circa 1931

- oil on canvas -
- private collection -

 
 

 
The Old Age of William Tell, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 98 x 140 cm -
- private collection -

 
 

 
Olive, 1931

- oil on panel -
- 21.5 x 79.7 cm -
- private collection -

 
 

 
On the Seashore, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 13¼ x 10 3/8" -
- Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida -

 
 

 
Partial Hallucination. Six apparitions of Lenin on a Grand Piano, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 114 x 146 cm -
- Centre Georges-Pompidou Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris -


This is a whole catalogue of Dalí's images. Cherries represent "the mystery of bifurcation"; ants crawling on sheet music are a symbol of mortality. Busts of Lenin on the piano come from a twilight hallucination, according to the painter's account, that presented itself to him one morning on waking.

 
Poster

 
The Persistence of Memory, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 24 x 33 cm -
- The Museum of Modern Art, New York -

 
 
Poster

 
Portrait of Gala, 1931

- oil on postcard -
- 14 x 19 cm -
- private collection -

 
 

 
Remorse or Sunken Sphinx, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 19.1 x 26.9 cm -
- Kresge Art Museum, East Lansing, Michigan -

 
 

 
Shades of Night Descending, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 61 x 50 cm -
- E. and A. Reynolds Morse collection on loan to the Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida -

 
 

 
Solitude, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 35.5 x 27 cm -
- Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut -

 
 

 
Symbiosis of a Head of Seashells, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 35 x 27 cm -
- New York, Collection Selma and Nesuhi Ertegun -

 
 

 
Untided (William Tell and Gradiva), 1931

- oil on copper plate -
- 30.1 x 23.9 cm -
- private collection -

 
 

 
Untitled, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 61 x 46 cm -
- private collection -

 
 

 
Vegetable Metamorphosis, 1931

 
 

 
Woman Sleeping in a Landscape, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- 27 x 34 cm -
- Peggy Guggenheim Foundation, Venice -

 
 

 
They Were There, 1931

- oil on canvas -
- private collection -

 
 

 
Agnostic Symbol, 1932

- oil on canvas -
- 54.3 x 65.1 cm -
- Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia -


The infinite prolongation of the handle of a teaspoon that contains a small object, as if an offering - in this case, a tiny watch - is repeated in other pictures by Dalí. The novelty here lies in the warping of the handle to avoid an enigmatic obstacle.

 

 
Anthropomorphic Bread, 1932

- oil on canvas -
- 24 x 33 cm -
- The Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida -

 
 

 
Anthropomorphic Bread, 1932

- oil on canvas -
- 23.5 x 16.5 cm -

 
 

 
Automatic Beginning of a Portrait of Gala (unfinished), 1932

- oil on laminated panel -
- 13 x 16 cm -
- Figueras, Fundación Gala-Salvador Dalí -

 
 

 
The Average Fine and Invisible Harp, 1932

- oil on panel -
- 21 x 16 cm -
- private collection -