Following the declaration of war, Camoin was enlisted in the 115th Infantry Regiment on the 2nd of August 1914. He was first sent as a stretcher bearer to the Vosges front before being appointed as the major’s cycle courier.
In January 1916, he finally joined the Camouflage Section alongside the painters André Mare, Dunoyer de Segonzac or the writer Charles Vildrac, working first in workshops in Amiens, and then in Noyon. Created in February 1915, this special unit used camouflage technique for warfare, with artists making look-out posts and military equipment invisible.
The missions were just as dangerous but gave him more free time. He put it to good use, making portraits of his fellow soldiers, landscapes or scenes of daily life in the barracks or back home in pencil, watercolour or pastel.
However, no drawings representing violent fights or gruesome scenes are known to exist. There is hardly any trace of the horrors of the trench warfare in Camoin’s work, a form of restraint which testifies to his inability to depict war.
