The Dream
1888 Musée d'Orsay
About this artwork
This large-scale oil painting depicts exhausted French soldiers sleeping on the battlefield, with their spirits or memories represented in a spectral vision above. It was commissioned and later purchased by the French state to boost national morale.
Did you know?
Édouard Detaille was a master of military art, and 'Le Rêve' became one of the most iconic images of French patriotic sentiment after the Franco-Prussian War. The painting vividly juxtaposes the harsh, muddy reality of life in the trenches with a nostalgic, idealized vision of the glory of the Napoleonic Grande Armée. It served as a powerful reminder of past national greatness, deeply resonating with a French public grappling with recent military defeat.
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The Dream
Édouard Detaille, 1888
