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Lot Essay
« Dès cette époque, ma gaieté picarde naturelle reprit le dessus et un dimanche de 1930, fredonnant sur l’air de « Viens, poupoule… » : « Un p’tit tableau bien épatant quand arrive le printemps ! » je me mis à peindre REMEMBRANCE, ce tableau anti-tout. On y voit, sous une pluie de décorations généreusement octroyées aux profiteurs, embusqués, les lauriers qu’ont gagnés ceux qui sont morts : deux soldats (un allemand et un français) qui se demandent, par-delà le tombeau, ce qu’ils sont allés foutre à la guerre. Eux aussi sont gratifiés d’une croix, mais c’est une croix de bois. Les lapins symbolisent leur sacrifice obligatoire, entériné par l’Eglise et l’Académie bourgeoise. Cette œuvre est un exécutoire personnel provenant du traumatisme de la guerre de 14-18 qui m’a pris mes plus belles années. Après cette guerre, je n’ai pu peindre comme au temps de l’époque d’Amiens où j’étais un grand peintre. C’est le premier tableau d’après-guerre. Il a été exposé au premier Salon des Ecrivains et Artistes Révolutionnaires à la Porte de Versailles sous l’égide de Vaillant-Couturier. C’est là que j’ai connu les surréalistes qui se sont arrêtés devant mon tableau. Il a été reproduit dans le no. 3 de Surréalisme au service de la révolution. »
‘From then on, my natural Picardy cheerfulness took over and one Sunday in 1930, as I was humming to the tune of ‘Viens, poupoule...’: ‘Un p'tit tableau bien épatant quand arrive printemps!”, I began to paint REMEMBRANCE, this anti-everything painting. In it, beneath a shower of decorations generously awarded to the ones who made profit from the war, and who are hiding, one sees the laurels won by those who died: two soldiers (one German and one French) who wonder, from beyond the grave, what the heck they went off to war for. They too receive a cross, but it's a wooden one. The rabbits symbolize their compulsory sacrifice, endorsed by the Church and the bourgeois Academy. This work represents my personal feelings resulting from the trauma of the 1914-1918 war, which took away my best years. After that war, I was unable to paint as I had in the days of Amiens, when I was a great painter. This is my first post-war painting. It was exhibited at the first Salon des Ecrivains et Artistes Révolutionnaires at the Porte de Versailles organized by Vaillant-Couturier. It was on that occasion that I met the Surrealists, who stopped in front of my painting. It was reproduced in the third issue of the periodical Surréalisme au service de la révolution’.
‘From then on, my natural Picardy cheerfulness took over and one Sunday in 1930, as I was humming to the tune of ‘Viens, poupoule...’: ‘Un p'tit tableau bien épatant quand arrive printemps!”, I began to paint REMEMBRANCE, this anti-everything painting. In it, beneath a shower of decorations generously awarded to the ones who made profit from the war, and who are hiding, one sees the laurels won by those who died: two soldiers (one German and one French) who wonder, from beyond the grave, what the heck they went off to war for. They too receive a cross, but it's a wooden one. The rabbits symbolize their compulsory sacrifice, endorsed by the Church and the bourgeois Academy. This work represents my personal feelings resulting from the trauma of the 1914-1918 war, which took away my best years. After that war, I was unable to paint as I had in the days of Amiens, when I was a great painter. This is my first post-war painting. It was exhibited at the first Salon des Ecrivains et Artistes Révolutionnaires at the Porte de Versailles organized by Vaillant-Couturier. It was on that occasion that I met the Surrealists, who stopped in front of my painting. It was reproduced in the third issue of the periodical Surréalisme au service de la révolution’.