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| Henri Farré (1871–1934) in 1918 |
By David F. Beer
Henri Farré is considered to be the grand-père of combat aviation art, yet surprisingly little has been written about his life. He was born on 31 July 1871, in Foix, a small town in southern France. From his first exhibition in 1897 to the outbreak of war in 1914, little is recorded of Farré. By his teenage years he must have had a deep interest and gifted ability in painting since he was able to attend the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, where students were selected by competitive examination. At the age of 26 he held his first exhibition at the prestigious Salon, the annual exhibition of the Société des Artistes Français.
He was in Buenos Aires when war was declared in 1914, reportedly painting portraits for rich South Americans. He hurried back to France and on his departure from Argentina the consul handed him “a secret letter of instructions.” These facts were recorded in an interesting book Farré published in 1919 on his wartime adventures as an aerial artist. The book is still available in reprint, titled Skyfighters of France: An Account of the French War in the Air During the First World War. Originally written in French, it was soon “Englished” by Catharine Rush. A current publisher, Leonaur Books of London, concisely summarized the book on its back cover:
Henry Farré was an observer with French bombers during the Great War and was thus in a position to have a clear understanding of the subject of his writings. This fascinating book is partly comprised of Farré’s own experiences and his view—combined with contributions from his comrades in arms—of the French effort for the war in the air. . . This is a vital book for every student of the early air forces in combat.
Besides being thoroughly enjoyable, Farré’s memoir provides a wealth of first-hand information on the activities and attitudes of French aviators and the planes they flew during World War One.
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| Captain Fequant Returns on His Shield |
The memoir opens with four pilots, all friends of the author, giving brief narratives of their own combat experiences in 1917 while involved in a “fight in the air,” observation sorties, bombing runs, or directing artillery by wireless. These narratives set the tone for the rest of the book, which is enthusiastic, patriotic, and comradely. The French flyers are certain they’re on the winning side and that victory could never be achieved without them.
When a pilot has brought down his fifth plane, the chief of the squadron telegraphs his fifth victory to headquarters, and that gives him the right to be carried in the next general orders to the whole army with a citation of service rendered…whenever pilots merited this distinction, their machinists called them "Aces". . .
They admire the American Lafayette Escadrille, which, Farré claims, “ranks the highest among our squadrons.” They’re also aware of their potential fate. On seeing a German bomber shot down in flames, Farré wrote
Is it possible that the occupants remained unscathed? Imagine, if you can, the torture of those two human beings during the five minutes they spent before they crashed to earth. I pray God they had a swift death (p. 95).
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| Caudron Aeroplane Directing Artillery Fire between the Argonne and Verdun |
Due to his age (43) when war broke out, Farré was unlikely to have been called to active duty right away. However, he enthusiastically volunteered and was able to get himself assigned as the first aviation artist in the French army. He admires the nerve of the pilot who takes him, a “middle aged and slightly overweight” passenger, up on his maiden flight as an observer. From this point he appears to have taken to flying as an observer/artist with no qualms, fitting in well with the airmen of Groupe de Bombardement Number 1. They came to like and respect him and his work, and he admired them. He was given the rank of lieutenant observateur-bombardier.
Farré wrote:
The bombing squadron was created as an independent unit, and was intended to operate over the whole front, under orders received direct from General Headquarters. A sudden call would send us flying from one end of the front to the other on special service. . . (p. 29).
He was fortunate to be where the action was, and he took it all in— not just the flying but also the hectic life on the ground as aircraft were prepared for take-off, secured after landing, repaired, or retrieved after a crash. Often he was close to the combat—or in the thick of it—and once he saved his aircraft by precariously stretching out over the fuselage and loosening a stuck bomb. He went on at least one night raid. He also took an active part in the social life of the squadron, apparently enjoying the dining, drinking, and conversations. He made close friends with the flyers, all younger than him and several of whom were to sit for him as he painted their portraits. While many of them were to die in action, he himself never suffered a scratch.
The artist would often make notes or rough sketches of scenes from his aircraft and then paint them in full when back on the ground. One month was spent at Dunkerque with a squadron of “sea-aviators” flying hydroplanes, and he went with them on a bombing raid of Zeebrugge. When he completed his month with the hydroplane squadron he had produced 20 paintings plus many more sketches to be completed later.
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| Georges Guynemer |
Looking at Farré’s war art, it is not hard to see how he was influenced by the Impressionists—even while remaining original in both his subject matter and his approach. In general Impressionism seeks to elicit an emotional or psychological response to a scene or object in a way a photograph never could, thus capturing the essence of a subject rather than its technical details. The artists of this school, which included Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Manet, and Degas, tended to paint landscapes in bright pure colors and developed a fondness for white. They liked to include movement in their work and to approach subjects from unusual visual angles.
With an aerodrome as his studio, finishing much of his work after witnessing aerial combat from angles unseen by most people, and sensitive to the sky around him in all its moods, Farré the artist with Impressionist leanings seems to have found his forte. He depicted actions from an aviator’s perspective and was indeed the grandfather of combat aviation art. Announcing his visit to Chicago in 1918 with an exhibit of 140 canvasses, The Chicago Daily Tribune of 3 July 1918, wrote:
As historical documents, his paintings are unique. As pictures, they are thrilling. As works of art they are pioneers in a new field…. Action and brilliant color are the prime characteristics of this aviation art.
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| A Night Bombardment |
Others noted that Farré’s war art captured both the danger and immediacy of aerial warfare, and in René Martel’s French Strategic and Tactical Bombardment Forces of World War I (translated by Allen Suddaby, Scarecrow Press, 2007), we read how his
. . . tall, alert frame swung into the cockpit on days the bombing expeditions took place and brought back from the open sky a collection of rapid and thrilling sketches. Visions of war? Of course. Farré also knew how to capture the changing aspects of the air routes, their bizarre cavalcades of clouds, their interplay of shadow and light, the delicate greens and reds of the Lorraine mornings, the bleeding purple of the evenings in Champagne or the Somme region, the strange flight of the earthly horizons, which settle or rise at the edgeof the wings, to the changing rhythm of the flight (pp. 31-32).
Sadly there is no published collection of Farré’s artwork. He did produce a portfolio of 20 aviation scenes and four portraits of flying aces, published in Paris in 1917 with the title Ailes glorieuses (Glorious Wings).
Even before the war ended, the French government authorized Farré to travel to the United States to show his pictures in major cities. His exhibitions in New York and Chicago attracted considerable attention, especially among high society, who welcomed him and a handful of accompanying French officers warmly. It is claimed he produced more than 200 during the war. Some he gave to friends and a few others may be lost.
Farré was awarded the Legion of Honor and several other decorations for his war service. After the armistice he spent most of his time in Chicago, where he met Marguerite Graison, a modiste (milliner) who designed and made ladies’ hats. They married, and he set up his home and studio in the Drake Towers in Chicago but often returned to France to exhibit his portraits and landscapes. In May of 1934 he was awarded a gold medal from the Salon des Artistes Français for his portrait of Mme Doumer, the widow of the president of France, Paul Doumer, who had been assassinated on 13 June 1931.
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| Farré's Memoir Can Be Ordered HERE |
Lieutenant Henri Farré died in Chicago on 6 October 1934, age 63. His body was returned to France for burial. An obituary in the New York Times praised his work by noting that he
…did not perform his task by hovering in the cloud miles from the battlefield. He circled right over the scene of action and, oblivious to the shells, noted the details, which he sketched as soon as he reached the ground.
Today, 69 of Farré’s paintings, donated by Laurance Rockefeller in the 1950s, are part of the U.S. Air Force Art Program. His work was on exhibit at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in 2014–2015. Another smaller collection can be viewed at the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach. That Henri Farré is still known today as a noted artist is a tribute to this man who not only thoroughly experienced aerial warfare in the First World War but also painted it.
Sources: This article originally appeared in the Spring 2015 issue of World War One Illustrated. Presented by permission of the author and publisher. Photos from WikiCommons and USAF.
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