Panthéon de la Guerre
On the opposite side of the circular painting was a depiction of a war memorial, with four bronze poilus holding a coffin covered with the French flag on a plinth inscribed "Pro patria", and a single woman dressed in black weeping beside a wreath bearing the words "Aux héros ignorés" ("to the forgotten heroes") National groups of figures from the allied nations lined the painting to either side, four Europeans allies (The United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, Portugal) on one side and 19 others (including the US, Greece, Latin America, Serbia, Montenegro, Tsarist Russia, Romania and Japan) on the other.
The figures were mostly men, but also some female nurses, nuns and spies, such as Edith Cavell, Louise de Bettignies and Émilienne Moreau.
A section comprising representatives from Asian nations - including men of Britain's Chinese Labour Corps employed behind the western front - was greatly reduced to make way for by American figures when the US entered the war.
The Legion's flag generally consisted of a white bar over a red bar with coats of arms of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia and Slovakia in the corners and a crown with garlands in the center or the initials "C S" intertwined as seen here in the detail from the painting and photo of the Legion in France posing with their flag.
[5] The completed painting was displayed in Paris in a specially built building next to the Hôtel des Invalides, and inaugurated by the French President Raymond Poincaré in October 1918.
[9] Some small changes were made to make the work more attractive to a US audience: Colonel Edward M. House (by then a politician) was painted out and replaced by the US ambassador to France, Myron T. Herrick; an African-American soldier was also added.
[10] The work went on a tour of the United States, displayed at the Washington Bicentennial Fair in Washington DC in 1932, at the Century of Progress exhibition in Chicago in 1933-34, at the Great Lakes Exposition at Cleveland, Ohio in 1936-37, and the Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco in 1940.
