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The imagined war

Although Jean Delpech excelled at sketching daily life under the Occupation, he also depicted a number of clashes he had not actually witnessed. He produced several works on the Battle of Dunkirk, the Russian front and the Normandy landing. He also depicted the war in the Pacific, including the Japanese army’s invasion of Singapore. To do so, he dwelt on the human aspects of imagined scenes, which he developed around anecdotes that he read in the newspapers or heard on the radio. Hence, for example, the naked body of a soldier lying in the cold, stripped of his clothing by his enemies (inv. 2019.58.112), symbolises the Battle of Stalingrad. Jean Delpech also created purely fantasised works like the Airstrike Scene (inv. 2019.58.117) and his imaginary munitions factory, which prefigured his taste for science fiction, a taste that he would indulge later with his work for Gallimard’s “Le Rayon Fantastique” series.


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http://collectionjeandelpech.musee-armee.fr/themes-collection/guerre-imaginee