Salvador Dalí
The Secret Poems of Apollinaire, The Trenches (Las Tranchés) 1967
ML/ Argillet #192; Fields #67-10D
Hand-colored etching on archival paper.
Hand-signed and numbered in pencil at the lower margins.
A certificate of authenticity is provided by the issuing authority.

Across a pale, dreamlike landscape, Dalí presents scattered forms, shadowed depressions, sparse vegetation, a solitary figure, and the fractured remains of a battlefield. Delicate blue, green, rust, and violet washes interrupt the fine etched lines, creating a scene that feels both physically desolate and psychologically unsettled. A curved blue band crosses the upper portion of the composition beneath a stark, splintered tree. Below, irregular shapes and trench-like hollows lead the eye through the landscape. Dalí leaves much of the paper exposed, using emptiness and fragmented details to suggest distance, silence, and the lingering memory of conflict.

The imagery relates to Guillaume Apollinaire’s experiences and poetry from World War I. Apollinaire wrote some of his most personal poems while serving at the front, bringing together themes of war, separation, desire, and mortality. Dalí responds with a characteristically Surrealist landscape in which the battlefield appears suspended outside ordinary time. The Trenches demonstrates Dalí’s ability to translate literary and historical subjects into images that are both recognizable and dreamlike. Its restrained palette, delicate linework, and haunting atmosphere distinguish it within the celebrated graphic works of the Argillet Collection.

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. Published in 1967.
Edition size: 1-150 signed and numbered on Arches and 1-145 on Japanese paper. The vignettes were published in a separate edition of 95 on Japanese paper and 150 on Arches.

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