The Great War no. 5

The Great War no.5 shows the interior of a church with pigeons flying and roosting in the abandoned interior. A powerful image of the devastation of war… an empty cathedral destroyed and lonely with only the pigeons within its walls.
Original lithograph signed in pencil by the artist, edition number 40/125 and the artists title written in French on the bottom left of the page. The marks are very faint and hard to decipher so I have named this collection 0f lithographs The Great War 1 thru 12. All the images are in good condition with some of the edges worn by age.
Charles Paul Renouard ( 1845 – 1924 ) first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1877. He was primarily a print maker known for his images of actors, dancers and musicians from the Patis Opera and the Theatre Royal, Driry Lane. The Graphic , a weekly pictorial paper founded in 1869 engaged artists from different European countries to send the magazine sketches of events for the readers back home in the USA. Paul Renouard was one of those artists. This series of beautifully executed lithographs were probably from that time when he was out in the field working for The Graphic. Although the Great War was full of horrors Renouard manages to bring beauty and stillness into some of these images, power and drama into others. His skill is apparent and his recording of history in this manner is rare. A very special series of prints by a well known and beloved artist.