Jean Jacques Berne-Bellacour was an official French War Artist, attached to the French War Office, and he continued the traditional reputation of the Berne-Bellecour family. For just as the war of 1870 was recorded by his father, the 1914-18 conflict was recorded by his son, Jean. He not only studied at the Beaux-Arts, and with his father, but was also a favourite pupil of the famous 19th Century French military painter, Edouard Detaille, who firmly believed in him as a future great military painter.

As soon as hostilities broke out, Berne-Bellecour was among the first to rally to the Front as a combatant and took part in the Battle of the Marne. Here, in spite of fine personal heroism, he was able to sketch s...