Which 1934 Salvador Dalí painting shows a soft watch draped over a dead tree branch?

Salvador Dalí’s 1934 painting showing a soft watch draped over a dead tree branch is The Persistence of Memory.

The small oil painting presents a barren landscape with several limp watches, including one hanging over a branch-like form. Their distorted surfaces contrast with the hard, closed case of a fourth watch covered by ants. The scene’s precise technique makes the impossible objects appear unusually convincing.

Dalí completed the painting in 1931, not 1934; 1934 is commonly associated with its date in some references and with its early public history. The work entered the Museum of Modern Art collection in New York in 1934 and became one of the most recognizable images linked to Surrealism.

The melting watches are often said to represent time becoming unstable in dreams, but Dalí did not provide one fixed symbolic interpretation. The painting’s exact meaning remains open, which is part of its lasting appeal.