Metamorphosis of Narcissus
- Artist: Salvador Dalí
- Date: 1937
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 511 x 781 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
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About this artwork
This is the “Metamorphosis of Narcissus” by Salvador Dalí, painted in 1937. Dalí takes Ovid’s tale of a young man who falls in love with his own reflection and turns into a flower, and turns it into a double‑image. On the left a crouching Narcissus gazes into a pool; on the right his body dissolves into a hand holding an egg, the bulb from which the narcissus blooms. The image is meant to shift as you stare—Narcissus fades and the hand appears—an optical trick Dalí calls a paranoiac‑critical method. Dalí wrote a poem to accompany the canvas, adding layers of meaning and echoing the grief after Federico García Lorca’s murder and his deepening bond with Gala, whom he names his “narcissus.” The work blends meticulous oil glazing with a loose, almost sketch‑like treatment of the background. It now hangs in the Tate Modern, offering a striking look at self‑obsession, transformation, and the uncanny power of the eye.
See it in person
Metamorphosis of Narcissus is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
