La Cathedral St Jean

The First World War was fatal for the Peronne Cathedral of St John the Baptist (Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Péronne). It remained whole under German occupation which began in October 1914 and by January 1916, it was temporarily transformed into a prison to house French prisoners of war. When the Allies began bombing Peronne preceding the Battle of the Somme in 1916, the church fell into ruins. Depicted here is a view of the badly war-damaged Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Péronne following the bombardment, thus dating Mansard's etching to sometime after July 1916. The western front of the Cathedral, built in gothique flamboyant style remains mostly intact but the stained glass windows have shattered and several of the sculptures from the Saint-Jean facade have collapsed.

Paul Mansard was the alias of French artist Henry Dupont. Dupont also worked under the alias Marcel Augis.