Portrait of Jeannette, a Pack Mule, 20th Century

Jeannette was truly courageous, having carried so much equipment and provisions far from its native Alpine mountains. It originally belonged to the 1st Mountain Artillery Regiment and was, in all likelihood, part of the “logistical” contingent lent by that regiment to the forces deployed to the Gallipoli Peninsula, in present-day Turkey, during the Dardanelles Campaign.

This episode of the First World War pitted the Ottoman Empire against British and French troops between March 18, 1915, and January 9, 1916. The conflict was bloody, resulting in colossal human losses on both sides. The Allies withdrew in January, having failed to gain control of the Dardanelles.

Did Jeannette survive the conflict? We do not know. Yet, it was clearly an exemplary animal, admired by its human companions, one of whom felt compelled to paint its portrait to honor its memory.

Executed in oil on a wooden panel, this moving portrait of a mule speaks as much to the experience of the animal as it does to that of the soldier—an amateur painter—both of whom were swept, very much against their will, into a terrifying conflict.

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