French artist donates oil painting on Nanjing Massacre

French artist Christian Poirot on Thursday afternoon donated an oil painting to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall.

"Deliverance" is 2.35 meters high and 7.46 meters long and the biggest piece Poirot has created in more than 30 years. It depicts numerous scenes of violence, such as invaders beheading Chinese, women dying with babies in their arms, orphans crying by dead bodies. Dark clouds cover the city.

From December 13, 1937 to January of 1938, 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers were killed in Nanjing after the city fell into Japanese hands. China last year designated Dec. 13 National Memorial Day for Victims of the Nanjing Massacre.

Like many other Europeans, Poirot admitted to knowing little about the carnage until two years ago, when a friend told him while he was travelling past Nanjing that tens of thousands of people were killed there. Shocked, he decided to create the painting there and then.

Poirot started work in January this year after study documents and photos of the massacre. "I hope to let more people know about the atrocities the Japanese committed during the war," he said.

Zhang Jianjun, curator of the memorial hall, presented Poirot with a certificate and the artist was granted honorary citizenship of the city of Nanjing.

Christian Poirot was born in 1961 and is a member of L'Institut de France. He was honored when two of his paintings were bought by former French President Jacques Chirac for his private collection. Endi