Un Peu Loufoque and the battle torn warriors!

Finally, after what seems an age of anticipation, I have received my order of Titanium white oil paint this morning by post and am eager to proceed with my grand designs for the epic painting of Loic and Jacques immortalized as soldiers wounded in battle which I have so clearly envisioned!

I was most anxious in case Jacques scalp recovered some semblance of normality before I was able to commence, but luckily the red lead paste that Madame Grognonne used to try and tone down his green hair seems to have dyed his skin a very convincing dried blood colour and as the bandages she covered his head with are already quite grubby, as a result of his helping youngest to rebuild the automobile carburetor yesterday after school, thus he still looks quite the part of a soldier returned wounded from the war! Happily he has also developed a rather virulent allergy to either the hair dye or the lead paste and has several dramatically oozing sores on his face which add to the effect wonderfully! Madame Grognonne is quite concerned about the rash and suggested he might visit the Doctor for treatment but I have said I will allow no such thing until my painting is completed. After all one must suffer for one’s Art, even if one is only the artist’s model!

Loic however has posed a little more of a dilemma for my composition, as we have had excessively heavy rain and, despite being reminded on several occasions, he forgot to lubricate his new limb with the jar of goose fat Madame Grognonne gave him. As a result the leg has quite seized up. However nothing is insurmountable to an artist such as myself, and I may yet be able to position him behind some thing suitable to masque the fact that he has a spade attached where one would normally expect to find a foot. At the moment I am torn between posing Jacques and Loic next to the ancient stone crucifix on the outskirts of the village, which I feel will add some intriguing religious symbolism, or asking Chief Patissier if I might have them drape themselves over the German Machine gun, which Elmer Bucket sent for use as spare parts for the new dough mixing machine.

This painting, by Henri Gervex, dated 1915, depicts wounded French soldiers being treated at the train station in Poitiers after the battle of the Marne. I was considering including a nurse in my own masterpiece as I feel the clean starched whiteness of the uniform would serve as an interesting foil to the grime of the soldiers. However, Madame Grognonne, my only available model, is busy with domestic duties and I fear Chief Patissier would not fully appreciate my utilizing all of our domestic staff in my work.