Samuel Begg (1854–1936), The Great Offensive❄️🌲❄️🌲❄️

This striking illustration by British artist Samuel Begg was originally published in The Illustrated London News in 1916. It shows children staging a vast toy-soldier battle across a domestic interior, turning play into a reflection of contemporary warfare. The image was later reproduced in the Russian children’s magazine Mirok (December 1916), where it appeared under the Russian title Bol’shoe nastuplenie (“The Great Offensive”). The print poignantly captures how the imagery and language of the First World War permeated even the world of childhood.