CUZOR Lot n° 43

STEVE CUZOR HENRY FLEMING'S BATTLE Dupuis 2024 Original plate no. 12. Signed. India ink and white gouache on paper 48 × 62 cm (18.9 × 24.41 in.) Henry keeps watch. It's the first time he's alone, in a situation. But disillusionment has already set in: the war is not what he thought it would be, and his dreams of glory are fading under a haunting anguish. The young man's state of mind can be read as much in these phylacteries with their strange coffin shapes as in the scenery of wet riverbanks, dead leaves and black branches, which seems to conceal a mysterious threat. In cinema, night scenes are often shot during the day, and it's easy to see the tricks or inconsistencies. And yet, we believe in what we see. And I like that. It's this aesthetic that inspired me to sculpt these high-contrast sets. I pushed the lighting to the maximum so that the cast shadows would appear, which is quite rare at night. In fact, with the right color scheme, you could almost make this a daytime scene... S.C.