Félix Vallotton, Les barbelés (Barbed-wire)

Galerie Paul Vallotton, Lausanne

Date: 1916
Technique: Woodcut, 25.2 x 33.5 cm

Whilst Grosz uses the resources of lithography, Vallotton relies on wood engraving to produce a more diagrammatic picture, a symbol rather than a description, two dead men in an entanglement of wires. Their forms are barely distinguishable from the tangled wire, their limbs resemble wooden posts and their bodies are already disappearing. Overhead, a far cry from Orpen's insolently blue sky, a beautiful starry night - nature remains indifferent to the carnage.

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