Copy painting on canvas of the artwork
War (Rousseau)

“War” is one of Henri Rousseau’s most powerful and terrifying works. It is a fierce allegory of devastation. In the center, a wild female figure with disheveled hair, personifying War, rides a black horse and gallops over a field of naked and dismembered corpses. She wields a sword and a firebrand. The landscape is apocalyptic: the ground is littered with bodies, the trees are broken and charred, and the sky is streaked with red and menacing clouds. Black crows feast on the victims. Rousseau’s naive style, with its simplified forms and garish colors, makes the scene even more brutal and nightmarish. There is no glorification of battle, only a raw depiction of horror and chaos. This visionary work, exhibited in 1894, is a pacifist cry of striking modernity, a timeless warning against the destructive madness of men.