C’est la Paix. Tu vois pas un kepi! c. 1919

Curator: Looking at Jean-Louis Forain’s drawing and print from around 1919, titled “C’est la Paix. Tu vois pas un kepi!”, one immediately notes its modern style and engagement with figuration. Editor: It feels utterly deflated. The lines are sketchy, almost hesitant. The overwhelming feeling is of exhaustion, amplified by that sprawl of hats. Curator: Indeed. Forain captures the war's aftermath—a visual shorthand for the failures and disillusionment that shadowed the peace. Kepis, the military caps, became symbols of national identity and military might during WWI. Their absence signifies a societal void. Editor: Notice how the composition divides the space? The standing figure on the left is upright and formally dressed, contrasted sharply by the slumped, almost dissolving form on the right, practically submerged in discarded hats. The sharp tonal contrasts add to the visual friction. Curator: The pile of hats signifies, symbolically, the war, but on a deeper level, the loss of innocence and the crushing weight of death. It evokes a kind of battlefield littered with the identities cast aside, as Europe scrambled for a new normalcy. Editor: The almost caricatured features of the figures enhance the satire. I can't decide if they’re in mourning, denial, or both. The composition, stark as it is, directs our eye right to that central mass of abandoned hats. I have to assume those lines convey some sort of deep meaning and significance for this work. Curator: Well, Forain frequently imbued his art with sociopolitical commentary, and it is clear through the cultural codes here how he challenges any idealized view of "peace," framing it as something fraught and ambiguous. His personal experience as a war artist likely fed into the bleak imagery, capturing a widespread sentiment of betrayal after the war ended. Editor: So it becomes a visual essay on lost identity after massive cultural trauma? What had been central is now literally discarded, the compositional weight shifting onto what is no longer there. Fascinating and haunting. Curator: Precisely. Forain makes us reconsider the idea of "peace." Not just as the cessation of conflict, but as an emotional and cultural reckoning with loss and change. Editor: Definitely leaves you pondering the very definition of “peace” after experiencing such profound and deeply felt effects as are clearly portrayed. It is much more than what it first appears to be.