The French-American painter, Charles Hoffbauer marked the date on his painting: 1917 January. This date is a relatively peaceful period after the seas of blood on the Western front, at the valley of the river Somme, which marched into history as one of the biggest battle in WW1.
British and French armies tried to break the Germans but the war broke them as well and they lost their dreams of an easy and glorious victory. More than one million soldiers died on the muddy fields of the Somme until November 1916, when the operation was terminated and the troops on both sides just tried to survive the harsh weather. This period of a lull is the painting’s subject.
I saw much more terrible war pictures than this. It is not a depressed atmosphere painting on the face of it. The pale pastel pink houses, the light sky and ground are nice, serene backgrounds. Even the riding soldiers are calm and silent. This silent is what makes this painting terrible. Lets look at it again.
The town is empty. The artillery convoy goes through a dead-silent ghost town. The horses’ steps echo on the pale pink walls, which are flayed skins. The white sky and ground are bled scenery.
The artillerymen went through bloody things and even if the battlefield is silent today, it will be bloody loud tomorrow. The soldiers look like old veterans but maybe they are just young and utterly tired men. They lost their illusions and faith. And still, they are the lucky ones.
The frontal horseman’s crump back, his big moustache, his loosely hanging feet, and his hand in his pocket represent the loss of the ideals. His whole body, his posture, form a big question mark: why?
