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At the beginning of the 1910s Vaszary made a number of elegant pen-and-ink drawings. They are light drawings with a decorative rhythm and devoid of all shading. The sketches he made at the front in the First World War are quite different: they are more realistic and using passionate pencil strokes and water colours, he translated the horrors of war into terms of colour.
The artist went to the Serbian front in November 1914. The drawings of Rippl-Rónai were followed by the shocking drawings of other artists at the front. These are deeply sympathetic portrayals of the misery of people bandaging each other or escaping from burning villages. This particular water colour came into the collection from the artist's bequest. The bright, vivid colours and the dynamic force of this and many other of his water colours remained in Vaszary's art even after the war, when his focus of interest turned to scenes from the city coffee houses, bars, and the carefree seaside resorts.
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