Le repli boche 1917

Jean-Louis Forain made ‘Le repli boche’ with watercolor and charcoal, I think, probably in 1917. You can see his process in the layering of strokes, some scratchy and dark, others soft and almost transparent, like he’s feeling his way through the scene. I love the way he’s used the watery washes to create the atmosphere of devastation, that sad woman and the ruins around her. Look at how the brown of her dress seems to bleed into the earth, it’s as if she’s becoming part of the wreckage. The charcoal marks give it all a feeling of immediacy, like it was drawn on the spot, a kind of emotional reportage. And then those muted blues and grays in the background, they make the whole thing feel so heavy, so hopeless. Forain reminds me a bit of Käthe Kollwitz, actually, with that raw, expressive line and the focus on human suffering. But where Kollwitz is all about the woodcut's stark intensity, Forain has this lightness of touch, this delicate way of capturing the weight of the world. It’s a heartbreakingly beautiful piece.