This painting is one of a series of four, each representing an aspect of the human condition: Peace, War, Work, and Rest. Here, the state of War is shown as a dark, barren landscape where impoverished and starving people mourn their dead, raising their sorrowing eyes to the skies.
This work is a reduced version of an allegorical painting that Puvis executed in 1861 for the monumental staircase of the Musée de Picardie in Amiens, France.