“Impression of Africa” is a symbolic painting created by the renowned surrealist artist Salvador Dali in 1938. This artwork, executed in oil on canvas, measures 91.5 x 117.5 cm and is a quintessential piece of the Surrealism art movement. The painting is part of the collection at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
The artwork features a dreamlike, dessert landscape suffused with typical Dali elements that challenge perception and reality. In the foreground, a figure resembling Salvador Dali himself can be seen seated next to an easel, with his hand outstretched towards the viewer, introducing a sense of depth and interaction. Behind the figure and easel, the scene dissolves into a series of disjointed and incongruous images: figures with elongated shadows, architectural fragments, and various objects that seem to float without gravitational constraint. The palette is characterized by warm earth tones, which intensify the enigmatic and hallucinatory quality of the desert environment. Shadows and figures cast upon the vast and barren landscape contribute to the surreal and enigmatic scene that stimulates the viewer’s imagination and invites multiple interpretations.
