Scene from the Armenian Genocide: A French Artist’s Chilling Portrayal of Events at the Euphrates River
Special to Groong by Eugene L. Taylor and Abraham D. Krikorian
“The Euphrates was the tomb of thousands of the deportees. The Armenians who did not die were shot point blank by Kurds on the banks of the River — Composition of G. Dutriac.”
From a full page sepia image (5 X 8 inches) (by the very well known French artist, illustrator, engraver Georges-Pierre Dutriac (1866-1958): Lectures Pour Tous 18e Annèe, 23e Livraison [Delivery date] 1er Septembre 1916, p. 1745, used as one of the illustrations in an article entitled “Dans l’Horreur des Massacres d’Arménie” pp. 1742-1748. The use of the word composition in French is somewhat different from what it generally means in English. Here it sums up the entire plot and structure, and relays at a glance in full artistic composition what happened all-too-often to Armenian women and children on their death marches.
No single photograph could depict this particular scenario more vividly.
