Joueurs de cartes

Following the battles in the Argonne forest in 1915, the German Army launched its next offensive at Verdun in February 1916. Léger served in these battles as a stretcher bearer in the front lines, often under constant bombardment, and he took part in the French counteroffensive in October. Léger remained in and around Verdun through the end of the year, when he drew the present study, which shows some fellow soldiers enjoying a game of cards during a lull in the trench-fighting. He painted this subject the year before while stationed at Maison Forestière in the Argonne. He made the comradely game of cards the subject of his most important wartime composition, La partie des cartes (Bauquier, no. 102; coll. Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterloo), which he completed in November 1917 while convalescing in Paris from battle-related rheumatism.