The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus

The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is the name of a painting by artist Salvador Dalí, begun in 1958 and finished in 1959. It is a huge canvas, over 14 feet tall and over 9 feet wide (410 x 284 cm; 161.4 x 111.8 in), one in a series of large paintings Dalí did during this era. (An article by an art critic which surveyed the history of painting, rather arbitrarily only dealing with very large canvases as master works, is said to have inspired Dalí to set a goal for himself of producing more oversized paintings than any other artist of note in history.) The work was commissioned by United States millionaire industrialists, philanthropists and collectors of Dalí's works A. Reynolds Morse & Eleanor R. Morse to be hung in the lobby of their business office near Columbus Circle in New York City. (Correction: This painting hung in the Gallery of Modern Art at Columbus Circle in a space created especially for its impressive size...a building designed by Edward Durrell...