Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George at the Paris Peace Conference

What it is

This is a pen and wash sketch in brown tones on tan paper, dated 1919 and signed with initials at lower left. It shows three men seated at a table, with onlookers indistinct behind them. The bald man in the center has a thick mustache and a bulbous nose; the man on the left has a receding hairline; the man on the right has white hair and leans over papers. The sketch is by Noël Dorville and shows Woodrow Wilson, Georges Clemenceau and David Lloyd George. It is an illustration made later, not a photograph.

Why it matters

The three leaders were the main decision-makers at the peace talks that followed the First World War. Their negotiations shaped the Treaty of Versailles. The drawing shows how artists recorded these meetings for a public that could not attend them.

Look closer

• Which man does the artist place in the center, and what does that placement suggest about his role?
• Why might an artist choose to show the leaders bent over papers rather than speaking?
• Who is missing from this scene, and whose voices does the picture not show?