Part of the permanent collection at the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg since 2004, this is one of the last large-scale paintings Dali completed before his physical decline in the late 1970s. Though he usually worked in a studio, this was painted, in part, in the St. Regis Hotel in New York in 1976. It was first exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum that same year and was owned by private collectors for years afterward. Many people believe Dali's famous "melting clocks" paintings to be his most reproduced ones. But, no, it's this one. Dali loved complex titles, and this is one of the longer ones, including its subtitle, "Homage to Rothko." But, it sums-up its major feature, the spectacular double image. Though he took the work seriously, Dali was having some fun, making us work for that optical illusion. The best way to see it really is from 20 meters (almost 66 feet) away! At the Dali Museum, it hangs at the end of the large, back gallery so one can examine its detail, then back up until Lincoln's image clearly emerges. The woman is his beloved Gala, of course. Her pose here is one Dali favored, facing away, looking at a harbor from a window. Like Lincoln, Gala represented an ideal to Dali. In truth, she was often greedy, vain and overbearing. But to him, she was the perfect muse, providing strength and inspiration, always in the end mysterious and unknowable. She also appears at the lower left as a shadowy, dreamlike figure. At the time of the painting, she was well into her 70s, but she remains, in his eyes, a young, lissome woman. **NOTE** This is the SECOND version of two VERY similar paintings; the first being completed in 1974.
