5 x 6 in. (12.5 x 15. 2 cm.)

These two pastels were created in the Spring of 1916 near Dartmoor when Sauter was staying with his uncle  John Galsworthy’s. ‘The subject matter was as far from the drama of the Western Front as might be imagined – the changing nature of the English Landscape, its fierce weather, but also its intense and subtle variations in light and mood….‘Entries in Galsworthy’s Wartime diaries recognise Sauter as a regular companion of the novelist.  Perhaps in loco parentis, Galsworthy supported a young nephew who was unable to play a conventional part in the war….. Harry Moore-Gwyn, Sauter, Galsworthy and the Great War, Rudolf Sauter, Observations from Nature, Spring 1916, p 2

Sauter was later interned at Alexandra Palace, from 1918-19, on account of the fact  that his  father Georg (who had already been interned in Prision in Wakefield  in 1919) was German by birth. 

Sauter's internment was to have a significant bearing on Galsworthy’s own disenchantment with the War.