The End - Verdun c. 1916

Jean-Louis Forain created this image, called 'The End - Verdun', using etching. There's a starkness here, in these etched lines. I can see the artist, Forain, wrestling with something profound, trying to capture the feeling of finality. The lines are like scratches on the surface of the metal, a bit like wounds, aren’t they? You can almost feel the pressure of the etching tool, digging into the plate. There’s a rawness in the technique, a way of expressing feeling directly, and I imagine that the artist was thinking about the raw horror of war as he made it. The image feels unresolved, not quite complete, like a memory fading at the edges. I think of Goya, of Kathe Kollwitz. There is an art-historical chain of artists who grapple with the world in times of upheaval. You know? It's as if they're driven to make something, even when faced with the unspeakable. They have to make something in response.