Alberto Giacometti’s 1932 sculpture The Palace at 4 a.m. is a fragile, open-sided construction containing thin architectural elements, a suspended sphere and a crescent-like form.
Giacometti built the work from wood and glass, creating a transparent structure that resembles a stage set or an exposed dream interior. Its title refers to a specific nocturnal hour, reinforcing the sense that the sculpture represents a private psychological world rather than a conventional building.
The work belongs to Giacometti’s Surrealist period, before he became especially famous for his later elongated bronze figures. Surrealist critics valued the sculpture’s combination of architecture, objects and personal symbolism.
Viewers sometimes confuse this piece with Giacometti’s other Surrealist sculptures, including The Invisible Object and Woman with Her Throat Cut. The Palace at 4 a.m. is distinguished by its open framework and suspended forms, and it is held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.