Salvador Dalí
The Secret Poems of Apollinaire: The Beach at Sete – La Plage at Sête, 1967.
ML/Argillet #191; Fields #67-10F, Published in 1967.
Original etching reworked in drypoint on handmade archival paper.
Hand-signed and numbered at the lower margins.

The Secret Poems by Apollinaire. Dali’s initial plan was to illustrate a number of songs by Georges Brassens, shown with his guitar on the first etchings, singing the feminine body. However, the singer’s agent recommended so many changes that Dali shifted themes and turned “The Trenches” into a military ground, where time seems at a standstill, like a “Soft Watch” rock.

Seeing a correlation in the plates with the 1914-1918 war, Pierre Argillet suggested that Dali illustrate the “Secret Poems” by Apollinaire instead. From then on, the series took a more unconventional, more Surrealist turn, with compositions like “Woman with Snail”, “Woman at Fountain” covered by giant ants, and “The Drawers”, who ends up devouring his guitar.

The Secret Poems of Apollinaire: A suite of 18 original etchings reworked in drypoint, of which 10 are 15 x 11 inches, and 8 are vignettes. 

Salvador Dali, Argillet Collection – Off The Wall Gallery, Houston, Texas.