Hermann-Paul et la Guerre sur bois

Résumé 0

In several albums of colored woodcuts, a medium he “rediscovered” for imaging the Great War, René-Georges Hermann-Paul (1878-1948) produced works of iconic significance for the understanding of prevailing cultural mentalities. As World War One historiography moves ever more decisively into the examination and the significance of the cultural conflicts of the times, these extraordinary woodcut suites allow us to see how the juxtaposition of propaganda, patriotism and distress hint at the reassessment to come. The present article discusses how the propagandistic dimensions of Les 4 saisons de la Kultur of 1915 reflect the terms of the culture war; and how the two Calendrier de la Guerre the artist subsequently published in 1916 and 1917 help us understand how the seeming “time without end” of the war hints at a coming reckoning in terms of disenchantment and disgust.