Jean-Jacques Waltz, known as HANSI, In Alsace, signed print, 1914-1918, WW1, Eugène CORBIN collection

Jean-Jacques Waltz, known as Hansi (1873-1951),

In Alsace, 1915,
Original print on paper, signed and numbered in pencil 87/150.

32.5 x 50 cm including margins.

Good condition, paper showing slight, uniform yellowing, minor creases including in the lower left corner. The colors are vibrant and fresh.
An identical copy is in the collection of the University Library of Strasbourg.

Provenance: From the collection of Jean-Baptiste Eugène Corbin (1867-1952), a renowned patron of the arts in eastern France, founder of the Musée de l'École de Nancy, and a major collector of graphic art in the early 20th century.

The artwork depicts a French soldier in a blue uniform meeting two Alsatian children on a country lane, with a bombed-out village flying the tricolor flag in the background. This composition, created in 1915, illustrates the artist's attachment to France and his support for the French presence in Alsace during the First World War. A deeply attached Alsatian, Hansi dedicated his entire career as an illustrator to cultural resistance and anti-German satire, which led to legal repercussions for him at the hands of the German authorities before he joined the French army in 1914. Having become a key figure in regional imagery thanks to famous works such as *Mon Village* (My Village), he has left a lasting mark on Alsatian visual heritage.

His works are now held in numerous private and public collections, notably at the Museum of the Liberation of Paris, the Carnavalet Museum, and the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar.

Websites:

-https://www.alsace.eu/actualites/hansi-150-d-histoire-alsacienne/
-https://shs.cairn.info/les-petits-francais-illustres--9782765404309-page-97?lang=fr

Ref: S12DK1L1QU