Pret D Honneur Aux Aveugles De La Guerre
32 x 47 in (81 x 119 cm)
ID #100480
Central Office of Charitable Works
Recognized as Promoting the Public Interest by Decree of June 3, 1896
175 Boulevard St. Germain
Exposition-Sale of Paintings
Offered by artists in favor of the section of
Personal loans for those blinded in the war
From May 10 to May 31
Gallery Nunès and Fiquet
90, Avenue Malakoff
The chemical weapons so heavily used in WWI would often leave soldiers with blindness and burns. We see here how these long-term effects do not just maim the combatants, but come home to their families.
With his eyes shut tight, a father holds his daughters. Even though he was the only one blinded, the artist chose not to give the children eyes either. Instead defining pupils and irises, the two little girls stare out at us from black voids, showing how the war has affected the whole country.