Painted in 1931, Salvador Dalì’s The Persistence of Memory is his most famous artwork. I recall seeing it as a very young child (it may be the first famous art I'd seen), and feeling quite creeped out. Why were the clocks melting? And what is that thing in the middle- an animal, or a gnarled hand, or a piece of driftwood? It turns out that it may actually be a self-portrait in profile!
But what inspired the melting clocks? Dalí was only 28 when he painted The Persistence of Memory. This was during a period when he tried to put himself into a psychotic state with hallucinations for inspiration. There has been speculation that the clocks are a reference to Einstein's theory of relativity, which was new at the time. But Dalí himself had a different story- the clocks were melting because he'd just enjoyed a very soft wheel of Camembert cheese! Sometimes we assume that great things come from profound inspiration, when the real story is, let's say, cheesier.
These are just a few of the things you might not already know about that painting you can't forget. Read 14 facts about The Persistence of Memory at Mental Floss.
(Image source: Courtney Collison)