The Invention of the Monsters is part of a series of works that one might term as tumultuous, painted by Dalí between 1935 and 1940; the most important among them are Impressions of Africa; Soft Construction with Boiled Beans: Premonition of Civil War; and Autumn Cannibalism. These three paintings reflect the troubled times before World War II. In the book Dalí de Gala, the painter has written about the Premonition of Civil War and Autumn Cannibalism: "These Iberian people devouring each other in autumn express the pathos of civil war thought of a phenomenon of natural history." In The Invention of the Monsters, Dalí has painted his premonition of World War II. Dalí began the picture in 1937, in Paris, in his studio on rue de la Tombe-Issoire and resumed work on it at the winter-sports resort of Semmering, south of Vienna. When Dalí learned that the Art Institute of Chicago had acquired this work, he sent a telegram with the following explanation: "Am happy and honored by your acquisit
