Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)

Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War) is a 1936 oil painting by Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dalí. The painting is widely interpreted as Dalí's personal premonition of the Spanish Civil War, which broke out later that year.

The grotesque figure dominating the canvas is a fragmented and monstrous human form, seemingly tearing itself apart. This distorted body is supported by crutches, a recurring motif in Dalí's work symbolizing fragility and instability. The inclusion of boiled beans, scattered across the landscape and clinging to the figure, adds another layer of symbolic interpretation. Boiled beans, a staple food, may represent the basic sustenance of the common people, particularly during times of hardship and conflict. Some interpretations suggest they also symbolize the decaying state of society and the inevitable violence of civil war.

The landscape itself is barren and desolate, further emphasizing the themes of destruction and decay. The reddish-brown tones and dramatic lighting contribute to the painting's unsettling and foreboding atmosphere. The composition, with its exaggerated proportions and disturbing imagery, reflects the anxieties and fears that permeated European society during the lead-up to World War II.

While Dalí claimed to have painted the work before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, its title explicitly links the imagery to the conflict, solidifying its place as a powerful artistic statement about the horrors of war and the disintegration of social order. The painting is housed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.