"Never such innocence again": Picturing the Great War in French Prints and Drawings

The Great War, as it was known until World War II, began in July 1914 after decades of relative peace in Europe. France suffered early, as German troops invaded from the north through Belgium in August 1914. Although Germany expected a quick victory, the war lasted four years, ending in 1918 with a loss of life unprecedented in military conflict, a result of the massive mobilization of troops and the use of such new deadly weapons as poison gas and machine guns. Philip Larkin’s 1964 poem “MCMXIV” concluded with the poignant line “Never such innocence again” and provides a fitting epigraph for what is conveyed in the works here.

Commemorating the one-hundredth anniversary of the war’s outbreak, this exhibition of French prints and drawings captures military, political, and social aspects of the Great War. Selected from the Zimmerli’s rich holdings of French graphic arts, the works on view demonstrate the immediate and passionate response of French artists to depicting wartime’s new and often brutal realities. Established artists from the 1880s and 1890s, who had regularly contributed works to illustrated journals that captured contemporary life and social commentary, changed their focus during the Great War. Instead, they depicted the colossal human cost, as well as the experience of the soldiers and refugees displaced by the conflict. They also created imagery vilifying the German enemy. Ranging from propaganda posters to limited-edition print series, the works on view capture the serious and challenging effects of the war in France, as well as the radical shift in what was considered appropriate to the artistic depiction of modern life.

Organized by Christine Giviskos, Associate Curator of European Art