War at Dawn

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: The National Museum of Reina Sofia (Madrid, Spain).

The picture in an original style is a vivid example of the artist’s painting of his “Paris period”. Against the background of a dawn sky depicted in a realistic manner, strange designs are found in a desert landscape without vegetation. The conglomeration and interweaving of forms, elements and details do not provide an opportunity to identify these objects that resemble something living and at the same time mechanical. In the work, Frances used the technique of scratchboard, scratching thin lines on the finished picture, which gave it a large volume and emphasized the shape of unusual objects.