In 1914, the war-torn fields of Western Europe became a natural breeding ground for the Papaver rhoeas or poppy, as it is more commonly known. It was in these fields that Canadian soldier John McCrae wrote “In Flanders Fields”, probably the most widely known poem of the First World War. It was McCrae’s words that turned the poppy into a powerful war emblem and the symbol of Remembrance Day.
In what has become the signature piece of Brian Lorimer’s Project Remembrance collection, In Flanders carries on the tradition of the poppy. Depicting a moment of calm before the quiet field is transformed into a battlefield, the painting hints at the destruction to come; the soldiers who stand waist deep in the scarlet poppies will soon stand in the blood of their fallen brethren.
This is a room box with poppies in the foreground using Brian Lorimer’s painting as backdrop.
