Dali completed this painting in 1976 and named it "Gala Contemplating the Mediterranean Sea which at Twenty Meters becomes a Portrait of Abraham Lincoln". Dali liked naming his works eccentrically using long names rather than brief descriptions, unlike many traditional artists. This painting's dimensions are 75.5 by 99.25 inches and it's a part of the permanent collection at the Salvador Dali Museum in Saint Petersburg, Florida. As the painting's title suggest, when looked at it from some distance the painting becomes a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Having seen this painting in person at the museum in Florida, a picture found on the Internet or in a book of this painting (and many other large paintings) does not do the justice. Dali is known for using bright, vivid colors in his paintings that look incredibly sharp in person, it's just something you have to see for yourself, so get yourself out of your house to see his works in person, the tickets are cheap after all and it's definitely worth it.

The painting's subtitle is "Homage to Rothko". Rothko, a famous Latvian-born American artist, has earned his reputation by painting simple paintings that used shapes like squares and rectangles in vivid colors that were considered to be in the style of Abstract Expressionism (Although Rothko was known to have rejected that as the style of his work). This painting may also remind some of the work of the famous American pop-artist Andy Warhol.

Dali liked hiding things in his paintings by using optical illusions. In the middle of this painting, a woman, who is Dali's wife (Gala) looking out of a cross-shaped window overlooking the harbor. The window happens to be a cross that also outlines the shape of Lincoln's head. At the right side, slightly below the horizontal mid-section of the painting we see 4 tiles aligned together to form another cross. By taking a closer look of the upper region of the Abraham Lincoln head, yet another cross painted out as a cloud formation can be spotted. To the left of that cross and directly where the sun is shining through the reddish-orange clouds one can spot a reference to one of Dali's other controversial paintings entitled "Christ of St John of the Cross" which is considered one of the finest works of Salvador Dali. When people think of the most reproduced painting by Salvador Dali, they may falsely guess that it is the famous The Persistence of Memory (with it's Dali's hallmark melting clocks). In reality "Christ of St John of the Cross" is considered to be the most reproduced painting by Salvador Dali.

Some parts of this painting are rendered in the style known as "trompe l'oeli", where adding subtle shadows to the objects makes them seem to leap out from the flat surface of the painting, creating a subtle but very effective 3-dimensional illusion. This effect has been used on the walls in the painting where the plaster is breaking and peeling off, revealing some of the tiles.

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