Why is 'The Persistence of Memory' Dali's most famous work?

Answer 1

The painting portrays a set of melting pocket watches, that are a result of his experimenting with soft and hard as themes. The idea of the watches came to Dali from the limited sense of time a person has while dreaming. They are also often thought to symbolize the irrelevance of time.

There is an odd shape or figure lying on the beach in the painting. This is an abstract self portrait of Salvador Dali and it appears in many of his paintings. The figure is becoming translucent in the same way a person might not remember exactly what consistence something or someone was in a dream.

The orange pocket watch on the table is covered by ants, which Dali often used to represent death or female genitalia.

He drew inspiration for the surroundings from Cadaqués, a town in Spain.

Answer 2

He said he had dreamed about runny camembert cheese. Typically surrealist artists got ideas from dreams. He wasn't feeling good so he ate cheese and when he was going to bed he check his art work and he got the amazing idea of making melting clocks.

Well, in fact you shouldn't always trust the explanations of Dali, because he was often consciously trying to confuse people. Rather than cheese, the painting is depicting how the memory of the artist is distorted, as part of the surreal project. This also explains why Dali in his autobiography so often tells stories which are obviously not true.

Answer 3

He said he had dreamed about runny camembert cheese. Typically surrealist artists got ideas from dreams.

Answer 4

People have seen or heard of it, people like it or find it interesting. That's what famous means. There is no WHY about it.

Answer 5

From a dream.