Le retour au foyer (The Return Home)
c. 1915
Medium
etching and drypoint on wove paper
Dimensions
plate: 29.9 × 39.6 cm (11 3/4 × 15 9/16 in.) sheet: 35.7 × 49 cm (14 1/16 × 19 5/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.3824
Art Historical Context
Jean-Louis Forain's *Le retour au foyer (The Return Home)*, around 1915, captures a poignant moment amid the devastation of World War I. etching and drypoint on wove paper depicts weary soldiers reuniting with loved ones, evoking the universal longing for peace and normalcy. Forain, a French known for his Impressionist roots and later social realist works, shifted during the war to produce powerful prints documenting the human cost of conflict, blending empathy with unflinching observation. The medium—etching for precise lines etched by acid, combined with drypoint's velvety burr from direct ...
About the Artist
Jean-Louis Forain
Jean-Louis Forain was born Louis Henri Forain on October 23, 1852, in Reims, France, to a family of modest means; his father painted ornamental signs. The family relocated to Paris when he was eight, where young Forain developed a passion for drawing inspired by the sculptures of Reims Cathedral and the masters at the Louvre, which he began copying at age fourteen. He received drawing lessons from...