''Le Départ des poilus, août 1914'' (French: ''Departure of the Infantrymen, August 1914'') is a monumental mural by the American artist Albert Herter. The painting measures and is displayed at the

Gare de l'Est The Gare de l'Est (; English: "Station of the East" or "East station"), officially Paris Est, is one of the seven large mainline railway station termini in Paris, France. It is located in the 10th arrondissement, not far southeast from the Ga ...

railway station in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, where it is suspended some high on a wall in the Hall d'Alsace. Herter's work was intended as a memorial to his elder son Everit, also a painter, who volunteered to join the US Army in September 1917, some months after the US joined the First World War. Everit Herter joined the camouflage section of the

United States Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wo ...

. Sergeant Herter was killed in June 1918 near

Château-Thierry Château-Thierry (; Picard: ''Catieu-Thierry'') is a French commune situated in the department of the Aisne, in the administrative region of Hauts-de-France, and in the historic Province of Champagne. The origin of the name of the town is u ...

in Aisne, while serving in France with the

American Expeditionary Force The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) was a formation of the United States Armed Forces on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front during World War I, composed mostly of units from the United States Army, U.S. Army. The AEF was establis ...

, and is buried in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery. He had spent time in Europe with his parents before the war, including a period studying at a secondary school in France. Herter channelled his grief into this mural, which depicts many '' poilus'' (French infantrymen) leaving for the Western Front. Over 3 million French citizens were mobilised in the summer of 1914, and many left from this hall at the Gare de l'Est. The upper half of the frieze shows young men in uniform on the train awaiting departure. One to the right carries the French tricolour, and the young man at centre, holding aloft his cap and a rifle with a bouquet of flowers, is a portrait of Everit. The lower half shows men, women and children saying their farewells. The man at far right with the bouquet of flowers is a self-portrait of Herter, and the woman in white at the far left is a portrait of Herter's wife Adele (née McGinnis). The work was painted in 1925-26 at the Chateau de Versailles. Herter donated the mural to the people of France, and it was unveiled in the departure hall at the Gare de l'Est on 8 June 1926, in the presence of the former French Commander-in-Chief Marshal Joffre, the French Minister of War and former

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Paul Painlevé, the Minister of Arts Anatole de Monzie, and the US Ambassador to France Myron T. Herrick. At the same ceremony, Herter was awarded the

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

. The painting was removed from the Gare de l'Est in 1948, to be cleaned of the dirt deposited by years of smoke from steam trains. It returned in 1964, but was removed again in 2006 to allow the station to be adapted for the TGV Est. After restoration, it was reinstalled in early 2008 in the Hall d'Alsace. File:Le Départ des poilus.jpg, The painting in 2008 File:Hall Alsace 00287.JPG, The painting in the

in 2014 File:Paris Gare de l'Est4.JPG, The painting in 2015

References

"New York Artist Killed in France,"
''The New York Times'', June 28, 1918
Albert Herter, Le Départ des poilus, août 1914, 1926
Collège Louis Lumière, Versailles

Le Monde, 4 November 2013

Béziauhistgeo
Août 14. La France entre en guerre
Bruno Cabanes, pp. 74-76.
La gare de l'Est doit se souvenir de ses poilus
Le Figaro, 14 October 2007
Le Départ des poilus, août 1914
14-18 Monument aux morts de la Grande Guerre Ville de Paris {{DEFAULTSORT:Départ des poilus World War I in popular culture Paintings in Paris War paintings Anti-war paintings 1926 paintings