Untitled (Dream of Venus) formerly Visions of Eternity

Untitled (Dream of Venus) formerly Visions of Eternity — Salvador Dalí. 1939.

Medium: Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 207 × 117.5 cm (81 1/2 × 46 1/4 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

This painting originally comprised the left-most portion of a much larger mural featured in the popular and salacious Dream of Venus pavilion, which Dalí created for the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Incorporating the artist’s major iconography of the decade, including a melting clock and a burning giraffe, the mural hung in the “dry” portion of the presentation. The adjacent “wet” aquarium featured a burlesque performance that complemented the pavilion’s celebration of classical beauty. The arched passage in this painting was mirrored on the mural’s right side in a panel that remains lost today.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.