Elsewhere in this volume is told how an American poet, Alan Seeger,
gave his life for France. Here is the story of a French painter who,
freely offering his life, gave what was even more precious to him than
life. You may know the name Lemordant, and you may know the work signed
by that name; if not, what pleasanter introduction to both than some
words by Mary Fanton Roberts in the _Touchstone_? She says:
“Perhaps all unconsciously, this heroic French artist-soldier has
found the truth about democracy, and he tells it to us with lightning
strokes and splendid color. In all of his pictures he is a painter
of the simple people: of the workmen, the peasants, the sailors, the
fishermen, and women. And he paints them working joyously with strength
and exhilaration and interest. He paints them running in the meadows
and dancing on the shore and laughing into each other’s faces. He
paints them as great workmen, great lovers. They seem, these men and
women, in their bright-colored clothes and their vivid faces, as much
a part of the essential beauty of life as white clouds racing over the
blue sky on a windy day, as the amethyst water through which the women
splash bringing in the nets; they are as genuine as the yellow shore
where the brilliant fishing-boats lie, as the poppies in the field, and
the tulips in the home-gardens.”