Programme of national events marking the centenary of the First World War

Exhibition

Mobilized in 1914, many artists in the trenches took to drawing to escape the horror and sordid reality of war. The sketches and watercolours of Marius Chambon, Jean Louis Forain and Lucien Jonas show, with great sensitivity, what life was like for soldiers at the front. They are presented alongside letters written by the soldier Chambon to his wife which attest as much to his patriotism as to his need to create to survive. Life in the back area is also illustrated in watercolours by Jeanne Thil who takes for her subject life in the hospitals and the suffering of the patients, of course, but also scenes of joy.