Dead German Soldier c. 1914 - 1919

Jean-Louis Forain made this image of a dead German soldier with watercolor and ink. It looks like he used a kind of broken line to build up his shapes, and a limited palette of muted greens, browns and reds. There's a contrast between the looser washes around the fallen figure and the hard, dark lines of the two soldiers in the background. The ground around the fallen soldier is rendered with a kind of nervous energy, like a stain spreading out from the body, while the other two stand as sentinels rendered as cold, hard facts. Looking at that spot of red on the head of the dead man, it’s a shock of pure color amidst all that muted drabness. It’s like the whole image is draining of life, except for that one raw, pulsing mark. You think about Goya, and how he unflinchingly depicts the horrors of war. Maybe Forain was looking at him too. Art is all about looking back and speaking forward, right?