Drawing 1918, Louis Gaillard, Osnabruck Hanover, Camp Of French Officers Prisoners

Original drawing by Louis GAILLARD: “Osnabruck (Hanover). Camp of French officers prisoners. View from a window of the Barracks (August 1918).” Watercolor and Indian ink. 23.7 x 29.5 cm at sight, in a frame of 25.7 x 31.5 cm. Signed lower right: “Lieutenant L. Gaillard, 19th RI” The 19th Infantry Regiment was formed for the First World War in Brest, largely from Breton soldiers. Around twenty officers of the 19th RI were taken prisoner by the Germans in May 1918 and sent to the Osnabrück camp (Lower Saxony, between Münster and Bremen). The officer camps were less harsh and more comfortable than the so-called basic prison camps. The inmates did not work there, which explains why Lieutenant Gaillard was able to take the time to draw. Lieutenant Charles de Gaulle was interned at the Osnabrück camp in 1916.