L'arbre mort (Dead tree) (large plate), from the series 'Huit illustrations de guerre'

Four soldiers on horseback ride down a road through a landscape past a dead tree with a broken branch. The tree is evocative of ruined lives, as well as depicting wartime devastation. De Segonzac based these etchings on drawings made at the front. They were printed in 1926. L'arbre mort (large plate) was also printed in 208 proofs on Japan paper for the deluxe edition of Paul Jamot's book on Dunoyer de Segonzac, Paris 1929. The second state has a monogram 'S.D.A.' upper right. A small version of this image, with two dead trees, appeared as plate 2 in 'Huit illustrations de guerre' (Liore and Callier no. 20). Another version, with the broken branch hanging more limply from the dead tree and with the soldiers more roughly sketched in, appeared in 'Les croix de bois', facing p 152 (Liore and Cailler no. 7). This print is from the edition of 17 on Japan paper; there were 107 altogether (8 on ancient Japan paper, 50 on van Gelder paper and 15 artist's proofs and 7 trial proofs all signed by the artist.