Au Front de Vincennes. Bolo pacha II c. 1914 - 1919

Jean-Louis Forain made this drawing, Bolo Pacha II, with pencil on paper. Just look at those urgent, dark lines and smudges – you can almost hear the scratch of the graphite! Imagine Forain, hurrying to capture the scene, his hand moving quickly across the page. The image emerges from a flurry of marks, a few dark lines for the figures in the foreground, and lighter, sketchier strokes for the firing squad in the background. Bolo Pacha, shoulders hunched, being led to his execution. The guard looks kind of awkward, too. The interesting thing about drawing like this is how expressive it is. What could Forain have been thinking as he drew this? Maybe something like: 'How can I show this man's pain?' Or maybe he was fascinated and repulsed, caught between the personal and the political. Either way, this drawing leaves you with a feeling, not just a picture. It’s like he’s saying, ‘Look, I saw this, and now you see it too.’ And that’s the power of drawing, isn’t it? To make you feel like you were there.