Signed, inscribed and dated l.l.: W.Rothenstein/Fresnes/Feb 1918 and with later dedication (l.r.)

Watercolour, gouache and coloured chalks over pencil, 36 by 51 cm

Most of Rothenstein’s sparse but hauntingly beautiful drawings of the Western Front date from the winter of 1917-18. He recalled it as one of his most inspired times as an artist, finding in the destruction a peculiar sense of the picturesque: “Had I asked myself, would I rather there had been no war, and consequently no such strange livid beauty, I should have been at a loss to answer …I never valued life more highly than during the weeks spent in making these records.” (William Rothenstein, Men and Memories, 1872-1938, vol.II, Macmillan, 1940)