Les grands blessé (The severely wounded)

Severely wounded French soldiers returning home to greet their families at the end of the First World War. A nurse holds up a little girl for her blind father to touch her face; a mother is embracing her son who is in a wheel chair; soldiers on crutches and others with bandaged heads are seen in the background. Lucien-Hector Jonas was born at Anzin in France on 8 April 1880. He studied first at Valenciennes with Layraud then went to Paris to study with A Maignan and Bonnat. He joined the Societaire des Artistes Francais in 1904 and was awarded third class medal in 1905, second class medal and a scholarship to travel in 1907, the Prix du Salon in 1911, and the second Prix de Rome and the chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur. During the First World War he produced several posters for the French government. He died in Paris in 1947. (biog. translation from Benezit, vol. 6, p. 93).