a) La Borne, Verdun (recto); b) Wounded Soldier and First-Aid Man (verso)

The work combines brush‑applied black and gray ink with black crayon over a graphite underdrawing, producing a hurried, scratch‑like line quality. The sketchy, almost gestural marks capture movement and tension, while the limited palette focuses attention on form and atmosphere rather than decorative finish, aligning with Forain’s broader printmaking practice.

Created while Forain served as an official war artist, the sheets document his on‑the‑ground observations, a rarity among his contemporaries who often worked from secondhand reports. The drawings have remained within the artist’s estate before entering public collections, where they are cited as primary visual records of the Verdun front.

Forain’s wartime output contrasts with the more detached approaches of many Impressionist peers, who largely avoided front‑line exposure. His participation in the French army’s visual documentation program placed him among a small group of artists tasked with producing immediate, factual representations of combat conditions for both military archives and public awareness.