In May 1917, a New York lawyer who visited the French battlefront wrote about it for The Times’s Magazine section.

The French were among the first to use to camouflage on a wide scale, with a unit made up of artists known as “camoufleurs.” In August 1917, the U.S. Army issued its own call for enlistment in a “camouflage force,” seeking “young men who are looking for special entertainment in the way of fooling Germans.”

Camouflage later became common in art and fashion. A 2007 exhibit at London’s Imperial War Museum noted its links to Cubism. (Picasso exclaimed upon seeing a camouflaged cannon in Paris: “It was us who created that.”)

The artist Andy Warhol also used it, substituting bright colors for earth tones, which removed the military symbolism but retained the notion of hiding.

Karen Zraick contributed reporting.

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