National World War I Museum - Kansas City, MO - DSC07787

The ''Panthéon de la Guerre'' was a monumental artwork painted in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, a circular panorama in circumference and high. It has been described as the largest

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

in the world.

Description

The painting included full-length portraits of around 6,000 wartime figures from France and its allies. The centrepiece was a "Temple to Glory", with portraits of French figures crowding on a staircase of heroes, topped by a gold statue of

Victory The term victory (from Latin ''victoria'') originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitutes ...

holding aloft a crown of laurels in each hand, on a plinth bearing the motto "Aux héros" ("to the heroes"). At the base of the staircase, French political and military leaders stood around a 75mm cannon. On the opposite side of the circular painting was a depiction of a war memorial, with four bronze

poilu Poilu (; ) is an informal term for a late 18th century–early 20th century French infantryman, meaning, literally, ''the hairy one''. It is still widely used as a term of endearment for the French infantry of World War I. The word carries the se ...

s holding a coffin covered with the

French flag The national flag of France (french: link=no, drapeau français) is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue ( hoist side), white, and red. It is known to English speakers as the ''Tricolour'' (), although the flag of Ireland ...

on a plinth inscribed "Pro patria", and a single woman dressed in black weeping beside a wreath bearing the words "Aux héros ignorés" ("to the forgotten heroes") National groups of figures from the allied nations lined the painting to either side, four Europeans allies (The United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, Portugal) on one side and 19 others (including the US, Greece, Latin America, Serbia, Montenegro, Tsarist Russia, Romania and Japan) on the other. The figures were mostly men, but also some female nurses, nuns and spies, such as

Edith Cavell Edith Louisa Cavell ( ; 4 December 1865 – 12 October 1915) was a British nurse. She is celebrated for saving the lives of soldiers from both sides without discrimination and for helping some 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-occupied Be ...

Louise de Bettignies Louise Marie Jeanne Henriette de Bettignies (; 15 July 1880 - 27 September 1918) was a French secret agent who spied on the Germans for the British during World War I using the pseudonym of Alice Dubois. She was arrested in October 1915 and impr ...

and Émilienne Moreau. The work also depicted some French

cuirassier Cuirassiers (; ) were cavalry equipped with a cuirass, sword, and pistols. Cuirassiers first appeared in mid-to-late 16th century Europe as a result of armoured cavalry, such as men-at-arms and demi-lancers, discarding their lances and adop ...

goumier The Moroccan Goumiers (french: Les Goumiers Marocains) were indigenous Moroccan soldiers who served in auxiliary units attached to the French Army of Africa, between 1908 and 1956. While nominally in the service of the Sultan of Morocco, they s ...

s (troops from Morocco), and veterans ("péperes"), and included a continuous topographical landscape depicting the battlefields of France and Belgium from the North Sea to Switzerland. A section comprising representatives from Asian nations - including men of Britain's

Chinese Labour Corps The Chinese Labour Corps (CLC; french: Corps de Travailleurs Chinois; ) was a force of workers recruited by the British government in the First World War to free troops for front line duty by performing support work and manual labour. The French ...

employed behind the western front - was greatly reduced to make way for by American figures when the US entered the war. While Czechoslovakia did not exist before World War I, during the war the Czechoslovak Legion recruited men to fight with the Allies on three fronts: France, Italy and Russia. The Czechoslovak Legion in Russia was composed mostly of POWs from the Austro-Hungarian Army. On the far right of the main panel of the painting the last flag shown is of the Czechoslovak Legion. The Legion's flag generally consisted of a white bar over a red bar with coats of arms of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia in the corners and a crown with garlands in the center or the initials "C S" intertwined as seen here in the detail from the painting and photo of the Legion in France posing with their flag. This stylized "C S" symbol was used extensively throughout Czechoslovakia during the first republic 1918 - 1939.

History in Paris

Work on the painting began in September 1914, after the Battle of the Marne, coordinated by French artists Pierre Carrier-Belleuse and Auguste François-Marie Gorguet, with contributions from around 130 artists. The work was undertaken as a private commercial venture, with state support. The completed painting was displayed in Paris in a specially built building next to the

Hôtel des Invalides The Hôtel des Invalides ( en, "house of invalids"), commonly called Les Invalides (), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as ...

, and inaugurated by the French President Raymond Poincaré in October 1918. Visitors approached along dark corridors to a central viewing platform. It was visited by 3 million people between 1918 and 1927.

Display in US

The painting was acquired by US businessmen in 1927 and exported to New York, where it was displayed at Madison Square Garden. It was seen there by one million visitors in 8 weeks. Some small changes were made to make the work more attractive to a US audience: Colonel

Edward M. House Edward Mandell House (July 26, 1858 – March 28, 1938) was an American diplomat, and an adviser to President Woodrow Wilson. He was known as Colonel House, although his rank was honorary and he had performed no military service. He was a highl ...

(by then a politician) was painted out and replaced by the US ambassador to France, Myron T. Herrick; an African-American soldier was also added. The work went on a tour of the United States, displayed at the Washington Bicentennial Fair in Washington DC in 1932, at the

Century of Progress A Century of Progress International Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, from 1933 to 1934. The fair, registered under the Bureau International des Expositi ...

exhibition in Chicago in 1933-34, at the Great Lakes Exposition at Cleveland, Ohio in 1936-37, and the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in 1940. It went into storage in 1940, and was acquired by restaurant entrepreneur William Haussner for $3,400.

Liberty Memorial, Kansas City, Missouri

Haussner donated the work to Leroy Daniel MacMorris in 1956 to be adapted for display at Memory Hall in the

Liberty Memorial The National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri was opened in 1926 as the Liberty Memorial. In 2004, it was designated by the United States Congress as the country's official war memorial and museum dedicated to World War ...

in Kansas City, Missouri. MacMorris greatly reduced the size of the work and modified it emphasise the US contribution to the First World War. Only 7 percent of the original work was retained, and large French sections were left out. The reconfigured work has been described as a "

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wif ...

" version, in a Cold War US nationalist context. MacMorris also modified some unrecognisable figures in the US delegations to represent later US figures, such as Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt and

Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

(a First World War veteran, and Missouri native). Colonel House was added back, and MacMorris also added portraits of Carrier-Belleuse and Gorguet. The bouquet of flowers previously painted in at the feet of Edith Cavell was placed in front of

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was an American politician and academic who served as the 28th president of the United States from 1913 to 1921. A member of the Democratic Party, Wilson served as the president of ...

. The lone surviving Chinese labourer was also painted out. Other fragments of the original painting have survived. Two fragments were displayed in Haussner's Restaurant in Baltimore until 1999, and were then sold. The building that housed the work in Paris was destroyed in 1960.

References

External links

Pantheon de la Guerre, Images Celebrating the Allied Effort in WWI
(images of postcards) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pantheon de la Guerre 1910s paintings War paintings World War I