Swans Reflecting Elephants (1937) Analysis

Swans Reflecting Elephants contains one of Dalí's famous double images. The double images were a major part of Dalí's "paranoia-critical method". Dalí used this method to bring forth the hallucinatory forms, double images and visual illusions that filled his paintings during the Thirties.
Swans Reflecting Elephants uses the reflection in a lake to create the double image seen in the painting. The three swans in front of bleak, leafless trees are reflected in the lake so that the swans' heads become the elephants' heads and the trees become the bodies of the elephants.
In the background of the painting is a Catalonian landscape depicted in fiery fall colors, the brushwork creating swirls in the cliffs that surround the lake, to contrast with the cool stillness of the water.