Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
Print made by James McBey, 1883–1959, British
Title:
Français inconnus
Date:
1917
Materials & Techniques:
Drypoint on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 7 1/2 × 11 1/4 inches (19.1 × 28.6 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, The G. Allen Smith Collection, transfer from the Yale University Art Gallery
Copyright Status:
© Estate of the Artist
Accession Number:
B1994.4.383
Gallery Label:
James McBey went to France in January 1916. He obtained permission to spend his next 'leave' actually drawing at the Front and he produced a number of etchings of the battlefield. This print illustrates a graveyard of unknown French soldiers at Fricourt. Other French soldiers are resting in what was once a trench. Two observation balloons may be seen in the sky. --- In 1917 McBey was appointed an Official War Artist and sent to the Near East with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, where he remained until 1919. Gallery label for Doomed Youth The Poetry and the Pity of World War I (Yale Center for British Art, 1999-06-22 - 1999-09-26)