'La Manière Française' - L'Accueil du Permissionaire [The French Navy, Welcomed Home on Leave]

image: A French poilu, home on leave, is embraced by his wife. In a red dress and standing on tiptoes she has her back to the viewer. In her left arm she holds a wailing baby, its head turned towards us. Her right arm is wrapped tightly around her husband's neck. He, in the meantime, still wearing his steel helmet and borne down with kit, faces the viewer with a surprised expression. Behind him, running left to right, is a large dog, its legs spread forward and behind in a medieval pose. Its head is turned back towards the left and its tongue hangs out. The whole is surrounded by an arched pergola interspersed with multi-coloured flowers. A small red bird emerges from the foliage top right. In the background, quiet countryside with the roof of a railway station and telegraph poles. text: The decision of General Joffre to grant for the first time after eleven months of fighting leave to the soldiers at the Front caused delighted surprise together with smiles and tears of joy - Quote from Les Journaux, July 1915