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Size:
Height – 1143cm
Width – 889cm
Literature: En Guerre, French Illustrators and World War 1, Neil Harris and Teri J. Edelstein, The University of Chicago Library, 2014.
Published by Librarie Lutetia [A. Ciavarri, Directeur]
This complete set includes twelve coulored woodcuts each representing a month of the first year of the Great War from August 1914 until July 1915.
Each month is represented by a place, a battle or an event such as mobilisation. Women figure prominently in most of these images.
The Battle of the Yser took place in October 1914 between the towns of Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide along a 35-kilometre long stretch of the Yser river. The front line was held by a large Belgian force which succeeded in halting the German advance, though only after
heavy losses. After two months of defeats and retreats, the Battle of Yser finally halted the invasion that gave Germans control of over 95% of Belgian territory. Victory in the battle allowed Belgium to retain control of a tiny part of its territory making King Albert a
Belgian national hero and sustaining national pride.
Exhibited: The Great War, Morley College, Sept./Oct. 2014, Cat.no. 28
Literature: Llewellyn, Sacha, The Great War, As Recorded through the Fine and Popular Arts, Liss Fine Art, 2014, page 41.
Pseudonym of Rene Georges Hermann-Paul, born in Paris, he trained as a painter at both the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs and the Academie Julian. Hermann-Paul’s prints and caricatures established his reputation by the beginning of the twentieth century. His drawings for Le Courrier Francais, starting in 1894, and for Le Rire, as well as his active support of Alfred Dreyfus, led to involvement with anarchist journals. A satirist of bourgeois values, cynical, abrasive, and even rude in his depictions, Hermann-Paul was an active social commentator for more than three decades, although in his last years his politics moved decisively towards the right.
We are grateful to Teri J. Edelstein and Neil Harris for the above information taken from their book En Guerre French Illustrators and World War 1, Neil Harris and Teri J Edelstein, The University of Chicogo Library, 2014
