This scene, depicting delicate foliage and blossoms as well as a lone sculpture -in the grounds of a ruined Abbey or castle, was painted in the first spring after World War I. It is all the most poignant as artist Jean Victor Foussier (1886-1950) had experienced the war to the full.He had graduated from the Paris Academy of Fine Arts in 1912, but hardly was given time to start his career. Right the start of the First World War, he was called up and joined the 37th Infantry Regiment in August 1914, with which he participated in the battles of Morhange, Flanders and finally Ypres, where he receives the Croix de Guerre and the Military Medal.In November 1914, he is taken prisoner by the Germans and interned at the Salzwedel POW camp. He will spend five years there, sketching the camp, his Russian friends, prison life. Demobilised finally in January 1919, he sets off on foot, alone, taking twenty seven days to reach France. When he arrives in Paris his mother, sister and fiancée ar...