Upcoming surrealist exhibitions at that time may have been the reason for the artist's decision to produce this piece. Rose Meditative offers an insight into the raw skills of Dali, without veering into the weird and wonderful world of more abstract surrealism which can be found elsewhere in his career. Indeed, this is a painting which will appeal to a much wider audience than just the typical surrealism obsessive. Gone are the dreams and nightmares which swirl around his mind and onto the canvas, this is a much more straight forward artwork. The specific exhibition that it most likely would have been targeting was the Homeage to Surrealism Exhibition, which also counted Joan Miro among its contributors.
The harsh landscape found behind the rose is repeated in many of his other works such as Hallucinogenic Toreador and Persistence of Memory. It was at a time where many artists were producing politically inspired art but Dali here was continuing to avoid that route with this relatively simple work. Roses feature in several early Dali paintings, but here he chooses to make the rose the main focus of the painting, at such a size that it's almost overpowering to the viewer. The red shades of the rose suggest passion, whilst the flower itself represents various elements of female sexuality. In this painting it represents love, with an embracing couple seen below. The dominance of the flower is to emphasise the strength of their relationship.
