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World War One: The Cultural Front

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Series 3

Francine Stock explores how World War I changed art, words and society.

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World War One: The Cultural Front: Series 3

World War One: The Cultural Front: Series 3: Episode 1: Bleeding France

Episode 1

Episode 1: Bleeding France

Bleeding France

BBC Radio 4 - World War One: The Cultural Front, Series 3, Bleeding France

1916. The year of Verdun and the Somme. Could artists and writers convey this new hell?

1916. A year of industrial slaughter at Verdun and the Somme. Francine Stock journeys through Paris to explore how a city and its artists responded to the nation's decisive battle.

Francine Stock continues her annual exploration of the culture made in the years of war. 1916. A year of slaughter on an industrial scale at Verdun & The Somme. Paris, the city of eternal light was now darker, greyer & more French than before 1914. Under fire from above. A place of departure and arrival for the thousands of Poilu (hairy ones) sent up the line to death at Verdun, a 10 month artillery duel that would define France's war.

Many Poilu on leave (Permissionaires) just wanted a bed, a woman & entertainment to distract them from the memories of ceaseless bombardment. Picasso was painting portraits including poet Apollinaire. Home from the front with a star shaped wound & verses to match. Americans like Edith Wharton wrote fiction & fact in support of France's war, including The Book of the Homeless for which Stravinsky contributed an anti-German march.

Henri Barbusse, recovering from his wounds, broke new ground with his novel Under Fire. At the Musee de L'Armee hangs a remarkable canvas unlike any other created in the career of 'Nabi' painter Felix Vallotton. 'Verdun' is a boiling world of destruction with no place for man, pierced by deathly searchlights of colour & power.

Fernand Leger recorded his frontline experiences mainly in letters, able only to sketch not paint, but his watercolour La Cocarde shows the crumpled & broken aircraft that littered the battlefield. Some of those aircraft had carried aces, the new heroes of the war to either glory or destruction or both. Their deeds were vital morale boosters for both publics & governments. The flying Americans of the Lafayette Escadrille were instrumental in selling a good, clean war back home to a reluctant American public & young men eager for adventure.

Producer: Mark Burman.

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Francine Stock explores how World War I changed art, words and society in 1916.

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World War One: The Cultural Front

Series 3

Episode 1: Bleeding France

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