The Great War, a 1964 painting by René Magritte, depicts a wealthy woman in an elegant white dress standing in front of a brick wall with the sea reflected in the background. The woman's white dress has a profound symbolism in this work: when a soldier dies at the front, the girl engaged to him is an eternal bride, a widow. The wedding bouquet, a violet symbolizing innocence and tenderness, enhances this imagery.

The artist expresses the tragedy caused by war through the metaphorical depiction of a bride who no longer has the need to have a wedding bouquet, eternally dressed in a white wedding dress, alone on a desolate seaside pier.