Devastated Landscape
H. Gray
Thiepval
PST 12805
Maurice Toussaint
St Mihiel
PST 12806
These two post-war French posters depict the devastation wrought on the French landscape by the war.
In Gray's image a soldier sits amongst the damaged trees at Thiepval, an area that saw particularly heavy fighting during the Somme offensive. Maurice Toussaint depicts a soldier sitting on a discarded piece of war machinery, looking down at the town of St Mihiel and its destroyed bridge.
Although both images show the enormous damage done to the French landscape by the war, they also celebrate the fact that that landscape was successfully defended, and ultimately liberated, from its invaders.
