Toward Peace c. 1914 - 1919

Jean-Louis Forain made this drawing, probably with charcoal or conte crayon, sometime during or after the First World War. It’s a study in contrasts – the solid darks of the figures against the blank page, but also the contrast between the allegorical figure of Peace and the two soldiers. I find myself focusing on the rubble at the center of the image. Look how the marks become more broken and scribbled as they come forward. These marks become stand-ins for the chaos and trauma of war. A kind of visual shorthand. It's this layering of meaning that I find so compelling. Forain’s drawing style reminds me a bit of Kathe Kollwitz – the bold lines and stark imagery. But where Kollwitz is all heavy darkness, Forain leaves space for a glimmer of hope, a possibility of something beyond the destruction. Ultimately, it’s the interplay between these elements that gives the work its power. The conversation between dark and light, destruction and hope, the real and the ideal.