Marmites-pots des fleurs-pruneaux…etc. (Pots, Flowerpots, Plums, etc.)

Jean Veber, artist

1864–1928

Marmites-pots des fleurs-pruneaux…etc. (Pots, Flowerpots, Plums, etc.), 1914

Where object was made: France

Material/technique: lithograph

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 285 x 378 mm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 11 1/4 x 14 7/8 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 378 x 557 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 14 7/8 x 21 15/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 20 x 25 in

Credit line: Gift of Eric G. Carlson in honor of Stephen, Diane, Erica, Emily, and Caitlin Goddard

Accession number: 2004.0148

Not on display

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Exhibition Label:
"Machine in a Void: World War I & the Graphic Arts," Mar-2010, Steve Goddard
Wildly popular and prolific as an illustrator for French periodicals, Veber volunteered for the army in the summer of 1914, at the age of 50. He was sent to Lorraine in September 1914, where he fought in the Battle of Nancy, also known as the Battle of Grand Couronné. This lithograph may allude to this specific battle, when the German army attempted to capture the wooded hills making up the Grand Couronné range. Despite heavy shelling and a numerical advantage, the German troops were unable to unseat the French forces, who held the high ground and used the terrain to their advantage. Here, Veber not only mocks the ineffective German artillery, showing
them lobbing flowerpots and fruit instead of explosive shells, but puns on the colloquial term for a large explosive shell, “marmite,” or literally, “cooking pot.”