Red etching of Marshal Petain by Henri LeRiche(b1868)
Drawing: 16" x 21.75"
Frame: 21" x 27"
Signed by the artist and inscribed

Henri LeRiche
(Source: sulisfineart.com) Henri Le Riche was a French painter, engraver and sculptor. He studied art in Paris under the academic painters Bourguereau and Robert-Fleury. In 1888 he was awarded the Grand Prix de Rome and began exhibiting his artworks at the Salon des Artistes Francais.

In 1898, Henri Le Riche became a full member of the Societe Nationale des Beaux-Arts and was awarded the chevalier de la Legion d'honneur from the French government. His artwork can be found in private collections across Europe.

Philippe Petain
(Source: Wiki) Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Pétain (24 April 1856- 23 July 1951), generally known as Philippe Pétain (/peɪˈtæ̃/, French: [filip petɛ̃]), Marshal Pétain (Maréchal Pétain) and sometimes The Old Marshal (le vieux Maréchal), was a French general officer who attained the position of Marshal of France at the end of World War I, during which he became known as The Lion of Verdun (le lion de Verdun). He then served as Chief of State of the French State from 1940 to 1944. Pétain, who was 84 years old in 1940, ranks as France's oldest head of state.

During World War I, Pétain led the French Army to victory at the nine-month-long Battle of Verdun. After the failed Nivelle Offensive and subsequent mutinies he was appointed Commander-in-Chief and succeeded in repairing the army's confidence. Pétain remained in command for the rest of the war and emerged as a national hero. During the interwar period he was head of the peacetime French Army, commanded joint Franco-Spanish operations during the Rif War and served twice as a government minister. During this time he was known as le vieux Maréchal (The Old Marshal).

With the imminent Fall of France and the Cabinet wanting to ask for an armistice, on 17 June 1940 Prime Minister Paul Reynaud resigned, recommending to President Lebrun that he appoint Marshal Petain in his place, which he did that day, while the government was at Bordeaux. The Cabinet then resolved to sign armistice agreements with Germany and Italy. The entire government subsequently moved briefly to Clermont-Ferrand, then to the spa town of Vichy in central France. The government voted to transform the discredited French Third Republic into the French State, an authoritarian regime that collaborated with the Axis. After Germany and Italy occupied and disarmed France in November 1942, Pétain's government was obliged to work very closely with the German military administration.

After the war, Pétain was tried and convicted for treason. He was originally sentenced to death, but due to his age and World War I service his sentence was commuted to life in prison. He died in 1951. His journey from military obscurity, to hero of France during World War I, to collaborationist ruler during World War II, led his successor Charles de Gaulle to write that Pétain’s life was "successively banal, then glorious, then deplorable, but never mediocre".

Paper is wrinkled, see the photos