CUZOR Lot n° 49

STEVE CUZOR HENRY FLEMING'S BATTLE Dupuis 2024 Original plate no. 100. Signed. India ink and white gouache on paper 47.9 × 62 cm (18.86 × 24.41 in.) Preceding the First World War by half a century, the American Civil War is often considered the first modern conflict, not least because of the progress made in artillery, which turned men into cannon fodder. The absurdity of combat for the troops, who are literally sacrificed by their leaders, is clearly evident in this plate. And Henry understands that it's the same on both sides, that those on the other side are no better than he is. In the drawings of the Jean Giraud school, which I admire enormously, gunfire and cannon fire make a lot of noise. Bam! Bang! But there's no room for smoke, which is simply line-drawn and only visible in outline. I prefer to give it substance, thickness and consistency. The onomatopoeia becomes superfluous. And the reader is old enough to recreate the noise in his head... S.C. Here, cannons thunder, guns backfire, but you can't hear them. No noisy onomatopoeia, as if the combatants' ears had been deafened by their clatter. The whole board is invaded by the acrid smoke of gunfire, from which the blurred silhouettes of the combatants barely emerge. What mastery in the hatching and rendering of the smoke that blurs the shapes. There's no blood spurting here, no gesticulating bodies, just a few corpses slumped on the ground, yet we feel the violence of the combat perfectly. Magnificent. Patrice Pellerin