Salvador DALÍ (1904–1989), Emperor Trajan, from the series *Pujols per Dali*, 1973

etching, Arches paper; 90 x 63 cm (sheet);
signed lower right: Dali (in pencil)
edition number, lower left: 187/251 (in pencil)
embossed stamp lower right: Dali

Provenance:
private collection, Poland

Publisher:
Fondation Picasso-Reventós, Barcelona

The work “Emperor Trajan” is a tribute to Francesc Pujols (1882–1962), a Catalan philosopher and writer whom Dalí considered one of his intellectual mentors. The artist referred to Pujols as the “Emperor Trajan of philosophy,” alluding to the Roman ruler traditionally regarded as the model of a just and enlightened monarch. The full title of the composition can be translated as “The Presumed Features of Francesc Pujols, Had He Lived in the Time of Emperor Trajan.” The print is an imagined likeness of the philosopher, depicted in the style of a Roman portrait.

In 1975, Dalí commissioned a peculiar monument to Francesc Pujols, which was erected in front of the entrance to his Theater-Museum in Figueres. The monument’s design alludes to Pujols’s philosophical concepts: a marble toga and a golden egg—symbolizing the thinker’s head—were placed on the roots of an old tree. The monument still stands today and serves as tangible evidence of the importance Dalí attached to his friendship with the Catalan philosopher.
 
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Bibliography:
- Field 74-10 A
- Michler-Löpsinger 590