A Versailles. L’envoye des boches c. 1914 - 1919

Jean-Louis Forain's drawing, made with ink and pencil, captures a charged moment with bold, expressive strokes. You can almost feel Forain’s hand moving rapidly across the page, trying to keep up with his thoughts. See how he uses these urgent, almost scratchy lines to depict the figures. I can imagine him, sitting somewhere in Versailles, maybe feeling a bit tense about the meeting itself, and just needing to get it down on paper, you know? It’s like he's thinking out loud with his pencil. Those quick strokes around the figures faces—they're not just outlines. They're conveying something deeper about the atmosphere of the time, maybe the uncertainty and tension in the air. It reminds me that artists like Forain and others from this period weren’t just passively observing. They were active participants in the conversation, responding to what they saw and felt. And in doing so, they invite us to reflect on how we engage with history.