By: James Groleau

Medium: Mezzotint
Imagesize: 7 x 5 inches
Edition of 50

The Lesson: A Prelude to War is part of James Groleau’s Blood Bone Elegy, a series conceived in the months following the September 11 attacks and centered on an allegorical struggle between Life and Death. A woman plays a violin, her expression inward and restrained, while a skeletal figure behind her guides her hands, subtly controlling her movements.

The image suggests instruction through domination: music becomes an imposed discipline rather than an act of choice. Rendered in dark reds and shadowed blacks, the composition conveys inevitability and unease, emphasizing the loss of autonomy as death quietly directs the living. Groleau focuses not on open violence, but on the moment when control is first asserted—when war begins before it is visible.