Keeping off a night attack on the Western Front: A ruse de guerre in the trenches - Firing star pistols and rifles at once

Details

Fortunino Matania, R.I. (1881-1963)
Keeping off a night attack on the Western Front: A ruse de guerre in the trenches - Firing star pistols and rifles at once
signed 'F. Matania' (lower right)
pencil, pen and black ink and black wash heightened with white, on board, unframed
14 ½ x 10 ½ in. (36.8 x 26.7 cm.)

Literature

The Sphere, London, 25 December, 1915, p. 327.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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Lot Essay

"During the retirement to a new line of trenches a handful of men were left behind to personate a company as best they could while our men were withdrawing. I saw one of our fellows firing his rifle and also blazing away with a star pistol. The result was that the enemy was successfully bluffed into imagining we were there in force."

This drawing, as was indicated when it was originally published in the accompanying text by the artist, was taken from a sketch drawn by Matania in the front line trenches on one of his several visits to the Western Front.

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