OTHER COUNTRIES 36
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ARRANGED UNDER THE NAMES OF ARTISTS AND GROUPED UNDER THE COUNTRIES OF
ISSUE
_Illustrations marked with an asterisk (*) are in colour._
_GERMANY_
1. *A. WOHLFELD.
FRAUEN UND MADCHEN! SAMMELT FRAUENHAAR! (Women and girls! Collect
your hair!) A poster appealing for gifts of women's hair, issued from
the office of the collecting Committee, Berlin.
_GREAT BRITAIN_
2. *BERNARD PARTRIDGE.
TAKE UP THE SWORD OF JUSTICE. Issued by the Parliamentary Recruiting
Committee. No. 106 of their posters. Also issued as a poster stamp
and as a "Flag Day" souvenir.
3. *F. ERNEST JACKSON.
SONG TO THE EVENING STAR. This poster was one of a group of four
which were sent out by the Underground Electric Railways Company of
London for use in dug-outs in France and other places abroad,
Christmas, 1916.
4. *T. GREGORY BROWN.
THEIR HOME, BELGIUM. War Loan Poster, published in 1918.
5. FRANK BRANGWYN, R.A.
BRITAIN'S CALL TO ARMS. Recruiting poster published by the
Underground Electric Railways Company of London, 1914.
6. J. WALTER WEST.
HARVEST-TIME, 1916: WOMEN'S WORK ON THE LAND. Issued by the
Underground Electric Railways Company of London, Ltd.
7. FRANK BRANGWYN, R.A.
ORPHELINAT DES ARMEES. (ARMY ORPHANAGE). ("To ensure that the little
orphans shall have a home and motherly care, education in the
country, a career suited to each child, and the religion of their
fathers.") Poster for a French "Flag Day." Issued in London.
8. GERALD SPENCER PRYSE.
THE ONLY ROAD FOR AN ENGLISHMAN. THROUGH DARKNESS TO LIGHT; THROUGH
FIGHTING TO TRIUMPH. The first war poster by Spencer Pryse. Published
by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London, 1914.
9. GERALD SPENCER PRYSE.
BELGIAN REFUGEES IN ENGLAND. Issued by the Belgian Red Cross Fund in
London, 1915.
10. GEORGE CLAUSEN, R.A.
"MINE BE A COT BESIDE THE HILL." This poster was one of a group of
four which were sent out by the Underground Electric Railways Company
of London for use in dug-outs, huts, etc., in France and other places
abroad, Christmas, 1916. The drawing was the gift of the artist.
11. L. RAVEN-HILL.
THE WATCHERS OF THE SEAS. Recruiting poster for the British Navy,
1915.
12. BERNARD PARTRIDGE.
KOSSOVO DAY IS THE SERBIAN NATIONAL DAY. Poster of a British "Flag
Day," June 25, 1916.
13. JOHN HASSALL.
BELGIAN CANAL BOAT FUND. For relief of the civil population behind
the firing lines.
14. JOHN HASSALL.
MUSIC IN WAR-TIME: GRAND PATRIOTIC CONCERT, ALBERT HALL. Poster of
the Professional Classes War Relief Council.
15. BERNARD PARTRIDGE.
HAVEN. STAR AND GARTER HOME. Poster of the British Women's Hospital
Fund, appealing for subscriptions toward the expense of converting
the Star and Garter Hotel, Richmond, into a home for men incurably
disabled in the War.
16. PAUL NASH.
Poster of an Exhibition of War Paintings and Drawings at the
Leicester Galleries, London, May, 1918.
17. SIR WILLIAM ORPEN, R.A.
Poster of an Exhibition of War Paintings and Drawings, executed on
the Western Front by Major William Orpen. At Agnew's Galleries,
London, 1919.
18. NORMAN WILKINSON.
THE DARDANELLES. WAR SKETCHES IN GALLIPOLI. Poster of an Exhibition
at the Fine Art Society, London, 1915.
19. FRANK BRANGWYN, R.A.
AT NEUVE CHAPELLE. YOUR FRIENDS NEED YOU: BE A MAN. British
Recruiting Poster.
_FRANCE_
20. *POULBOT.
POUR QUE PAPA VIENNE EN PERMISSION, S'IL VOUS PLAIT. (So that papa
may come home on leave, if you please.) Poster issued by the Comite
Central d'Organisation de la Journee du Poilu--French "Flag Days" in
Paris, Christmas-time, 1915.
21. *AUGUSTE ROLL.
POUR LES BLESSES DE LA TUBERCULOSE. (For those wounded by
tuberculosis.) Poster of the National Day for the Benefit of
ex-Soldiers suffering from Tuberculosis.
22. *D. CHARLES FOUQUERAY.
LE CARDINAL MERCIER PROTEGE LA BELGIQUE. (Cardinal Mercier protects
Belgium.) Published in Paris, 1916.
23. JULES ABEL FAIVRE.
ON LES AURA! (We shall get them!) Poster of the Second War Loan,
1916.
24. JULES ABEL FAIVRE.
SAUVONS-LES. (Let us save them.) Poster of the National Day for the
Benefit of ex-Soldiers suffering from Tuberculosis. Issued in Paris,
1916.
25. D. CHARLES FOUQUERAY.
LA JOURNEE SERBE, 25 JUIN, 1916. Poster of a French "Flag Day" for
the Serbian Relief Fund, on the anniversary of the Battle of Kossovo,
1389. Issued in Paris.
26. G. CAPON.
LA FEMME FRANCAISE PENDANT LA GUERRE. (French women during the war.)
Poster of the Kinematograph Section of the French Army. Issued in
Paris.
27. SEM.
POUR LE DERNIER QUART D'HEURE ... AIDEZ-MOI! (For the last
quarter-of-an-hour ... help me!) French War Loan Poster, 1918. Issued
in Paris.
28. THEOPHILE ALEXANDRE STEINLEN.
JOURNEE DU POILU, 1915. Poster of the French "Flag Days," December 25
and 26, 1915. Organised by Parliament.
29. MAURICE NEUMON.
JOURNEE DU POILU, 1915. Poster of the French "Flag Days," December 25
and 26, 1915. Organised by Parliament.
30. JULES ABEL FAIVRE.
POUR LA FRANCE VERSEZ VOTRE OR. L'OR COMBAT POUR LA VICTOIRE. (Pour
out your gold for France. Gold fights for victory.) Poster of the
French War Loan, 1915.
31. ADOLPHE WILLETTE.
ENFIN SEULS...! JOURNEE DU POILU. (By ourselves at last!) Poster of
the French "Flag Days," December 25 and 26, 1915. Organised by
Parliament.
32. JULES ADLER.
EUX AUSSI! FONT LEUR DEVOIR. (They, too, are doing their duty.)
Poster of the French War Loan, 1915.
33. AUGUSTE LEROUX.
SOUSCRIVEZ POUR LA FRANCE QUI COMBAT! POUR CELLE QUE CHAQUE JOUR
GRANDIT. (Subscribe for the sake of France who is fighting, and for
that little one who grows bigger every day.) Poster of the Third
French War Loan.
_GERMANY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY_
34. *PLONTKE.
FUeR DIE KRIEGSANLEIHE! (For the War Loan.) German War Loan Poster,
issued in Berlin.
35. *OTTO LEHMANN.
STUTZT UNSRE FELDGRAUEN. ZEREISST ENGLANDS MACHT. ZEICHNET
KRIEGSANLEIHE. (Support our Field Greys. Rend England's Might.
Subscribe to the War Loan.) Issued in Cologne.
36. *ERWIN PUCHINGER.
ZEICHNET 5-1/2% DRITTE KRIEGSANLEIHE. (Subscribe to the 5-1/2% third
War Loan.) Issued in Vienna.
37. ERLER.
DER 9{TE} PFEIL. ZEICHNET KRIEGSANLEIHE. (The ninth arrow. Subscribe
to the War Loan.) German War Loan Poster.
38. LEONARD.
DER HAUPTFEIND IST ENGLAND! (The arch-enemy is England!) German
Propaganda Poster.
(When still compelled to fight and bleed,
When, suffering deprivation everywhere,
You go without the coal and warmth you need,
With ration-cards and darkness for your share
With peace-time work no longer to be done,--
Someone guilty there must be--
England, the Arch-enemy!
Stand then united, steadfastly!
For Germany's sure cause will thus be won.)
39. H. R. ERDT.
SOLL UND HABEN DES KRIEGS-JAHRES, 1917. (Losses and gains of the War
Year, 1917.) German Propaganda Poster.
40. OSWARD POLTE.
DEM VATERLANDE! POMMERSCHE JUWELEN--UND GOLDANKAUFSWOCHE.
(Advertising the "Pomeranian Sale Week for Gold and Jewels.") Issued
in Berlin.
41. A. S.
ZEICHNET FUeNFTE OeSTERREICHISCHE KRIEGSANLEIHE. (Subscribe to the
Fifth Austrian War Loan.) Poster issued in Vienna.
42. SEGITSETEK A DIADALMAS BEKEHEZ. (Help the victorious peace.) War Loan
Poster. Published in Budapest, 1917.
43. F. K. ENGELHARD.
NEIN! NIEMALS! (No! Never!)
44. GERD PAUL.
ES GILT DIE LETZEN SCHLAeGE, DEN SIEG ZU VOLLENDEN! ZEICHNET
KRIEGSANLEIHE! (It takes the last blow to make Victory complete!
Subscribe to the War Loan!)
45. M. LENZ.
ZEICHNET ACHTE KRIEGSANLEIHE. (Subscribe to the Eighth War Loan.)
Issued in Vienna.
46. OLAF GULBRANNSON.
LUDENDORFF-SPENDE FUeR KRIEGSBESCHAeDIGTE. (Ludendorff Fund for the
Disabled.) Issued in Munich, 1918.
47. ESPOSIZIONE DI GUERRA, TRIESTE, 1917. (War Exhibition, Trieste, 1917.)
48. ZIECHNET VIERTE OeSTERREICHISCHE KRIEGSANLEIHE. (Subscribe to the
Fourth Austrian War Loan.)
49. OeSTERR-UNGAR. KRIEGSGRAeBER AUSSTELLUNG. (Austro-Hungarian War Graves'
Exhibition.) Poster of an Exhibition in Berlin.
50. DANKO.
BE A VOeROeS HADSEREGBE! (For the conquering army!) Hungarian War Loan
Poster.
51. FRANKE.
WILLST DU DEN FRIEDEN ERNTEN, MUSST DU SAeENDARUM. (If you would reap
peace, You must sow to that end.) Poster of the Eighth Austrian War
Loan.
52. P. PLONTKE.
ANNAHMESTELLE UND SAMMELBEUTELAUSGABE. (Collection among girls in the
schools at Mainz.) Poster of the German Women's Hair Collection
Committee for Magdeburg.
53. KAISER- UND VOLKSDANK FUeR HEER UND FLOTTE. (Kaiser and people's
thank-offering for Army and Navy.) Poster for the Frankfort Christmas
Offering, 1917.
54. HELFT! DEN BRAVEN SOLDATEN.... (Help! for the brave Soldiers....)
Poster of the Soldiers' Aid Committee, Berlin.
55. ROLAND KRAFTER.
The Troops Home-Coming for Christmas.
56. F. K. ENGELHARD.
ELEND UND UNTERGANG FOLGEN DER ANARCHIE. (Misery and Destruction
follow Anarchy.) Poster of the German Revolution, 1918.
57. BIRO.
Poster depicting the Russian Invasion.
58. A. K. ARPELLUS.
ZEICHNET 7. KRIEGSANLEIHE. (Subscribe to the Seventh War Loan.)
59. KUeRTHY.
War Loan Poster. Issued in Budapest, 1917.
60. FARAGOGEZ.
War Loan Poster. Issued in Budapest.
61. BIRO.
War Loan Poster. Issued in Budapest, 1917.
62. KUeRTHY.
War Loan Poster. Issued in Budapest, 1917.
_AMERICAN_
63. *RALEIGH.
MUST CHILDREN DIE AND MOTHERS PLEAD IN VAIN? BUY MORE LIBERTY BONDS.
64. *BOOKS WANTED FOR OUR MEN "IN CAMP AND OVER THERE." Poster of the
American Association of Libraries for supplying books to the troops on
service.
65. *ELLSWORTH YOUNG.
REMEMBER BELGIUM. BUY BONDS. Poster of the American Fourth Liberty
Loan, 1918.
66. ADOLPH TREIDLER.
FOR EVERY FIGHTER A WOMAN WORKER. CARE FOR HER THROUGH THE Y.W.C.A.
Poster of the United War Work Campaign, American Y.W.C.A.
67. JOSEPH PENNELL.
THAT LIBERTY SHALL NOT PERISH FROM THE EARTH. Poster of the Fourth
American War Loan, 1918.
68. L. JONAS.
FOUR YEARS IN THE FIGHT--THE WOMEN OF FRANCE: WE OWE THEM HOUSES OF
CHEER. Poster of the United War Work Campaign, American Y.W.C.A.,
1918.
69. AMERICA CALLS. ENLIST IN THE NAVY. Recruiting poster for the U.S.
NAVY, 1917.
70. MORGAN.
FEED A FIGHTER. EAT ONLY WHAT YOU NEED. American Food Economy Poster.
71. LOUIS RAEMAEKERS.
ENLIST IN THE NAVY. AMERICANS! STAND BY UNCLE SAM FOR LIBERTY AGAINST
TYRANNY!--THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Recruiting Poster for the U.S. Navy.
_ANGLO-INDIAN_
72. CECIL L. BURNS.
VICTORY TO THE MARATHAS.
Unite, ye men,
And from his strongholds drive the foe!
Nothing but deeds like these can win
A fame that shall endure.
Recruiting Poster, issued in Bombay, 1915.
OTHER COUNTRIES
_DUTCH_
73. *A. O.
IN BELGIE BY DE ZORG. (The Home of Distress in Belgium.) Belgian art
for Belgian distress. La Fraternelle Belge. Poster of an Exhibition
at Tilburg, 1917. Published in Amsterdam, 1917.
_CANADIAN_
74. *KEEP ALL CANADIANS BUSY. BUY 1918 VICTORY BONDS.
_ITALIAN_
75. *LOUIS RAEMAEKERS.
NEUTRAL AMERICA AND THE HUN. Poster of an Exhibition of Raemaekers'
Cartoons in Milan.
_CZECHO-SLOVAK_
76. *V. PREISSIG.
CZECHO-SLOVAKS! JOIN OUR FREE COLOURS. One Of Six posters issued by
the Czecho-slovak Recruiting Office, New York, U.S.A. Printed at the
Wentworth Institute, Boston, U.S.A.
_RUSSIAN_
77. EUROPE AND THE IDOL. HOW MUCH LONGER SHALL WE SACRIFICE OUR SONS TO
THIS ACCURSED IDOL? (The inscription on the idol is "Anglia.")
Revolutionary Poster. ? German propaganda.
_GERMAN_
78. GIPKINS.
BRINGT EUREN GOLDSCHMUCK DEN GOLDANKAUFSSTELLEN. (Bring your gold
ornaments to the Gold-purchasing Depot!)
_AUSTRIAN_
79. ALFRED OFFNER.
ZEICHET 7. KRIEGSANLENIHE. (Subscribe to the Seventh War Loan.)
_AMERICAN_
80. BABCOCK.
JOIN THE NAVY--THE SERVICE FOR FIGHTING MEN. Recruiting Poster for
the U.S. Navy.
I.--POSTERS AND THE WAR
Never in the history of the world have the accessories of ordinary
civilised life met with so searching a test of their essential quality as
during the War. All national effort throughout the belligerent countries
was organised and directed to serve a single purpose of supreme
importance. This purpose in its turn served as a touchstone to sort out
whatever was useful and valuable in everyday things, and shaped the
selected elements into weapons of immense power. The poster, hitherto the
successful handmaid of commerce, was immediately recognised as a means of
national propaganda with unlimited possibilities. Its value as an
educative or stimulative influence was more and more appreciated. In the
stress of war its function of impressing an idea quickly, vividly, and
lastingly, together with the widest publicity, was soon recognised. While
humble citizens were still trying to evade a stern age-limit by a jaunty
air and juvenile appearance, the poster was mobilised and doing its bit.
Activity in poster production was not confined to Great Britain. France,
as in all matters where Art is concerned, triumphantly took the field,
and soon had hoardings covered with posters, many of which will take a
lasting place in the history of Art. Germany and Austria, from the very
outset of the War, seized upon the poster as the most powerful and speedy
method of swaying popular opinion. Even before the War, we had much to
learn from the concentrated power, the force of design, the economy of
means, which made German posters sing out from a wall like a defiant blare
of trumpets. Their posters issued during the War are even more aggressive;
but it is the function of a poster to act as a "mailed fist," and our
illustrations will show that, whatever else may be their faults, the
posters of Germany have a force and character that make most of our own
seem insipid and tame.
Here in Great Britain the earliest days of the War saw available spaces
everywhere covered with posters cheap in sentiment, and conveying childish
and vulgar appeals to a patriotism already stirred far beyond the
conception of the artists who designed them or the authorities responsible
for their distribution.[1] This, perhaps, was inevitable in a country such
as ours. The grimness of the world-struggle was not realised in its
intensity until driven home by staggering blows at our very life as a
nation. Then, and not till then, a Government which was always halting to
"wait and see," or moving slowly behind the nation, at last got into its
stride. Artists understood the call and responded. The poster, inspired by
an enthusiasm unknown before, became the one form of Art answering to the
needs of the moment, an instrument driving home into every mind its
emphatic moral and definite message. It is characteristic that the first
truly impassioned posters we saw in England were in aid of Belgian
refugees or the Belgian Red Cross. They dealt with the violation of
Belgium; and the stirring appeal of the work done by G. Spencer Pryse and
Frank Brangwyn, R.A., in those early days will always linger in the
memory.
So numerous were the posters issued in every country, both by the
Governments concerned and the various committees dealing with relief work
and other aspects of the War, that the international collection acquired
by the Imperial War Museum exceeds twenty thousand. Large numbers of
these, many of them consisting of letterpress only, are outside the scope
of the present volume, which is intended to make accessible to the public
in a convenient form reproductions of a small selection distinguished for
their artistic merit. The collection of original War posters acquired by
the Victoria and Albert Museum has provided most of the illustrations. It
comprises several hundred posters from Germany, Austria, Hungary, and
other countries, in addition to those issued by Great Britain and her
Allies; and it illustrates, in a compact form, the finest artistic uses to
which colour-lithography was put as a weapon in the World War.
The small collection made for this volume is necessarily arbitrary. Our
illustrations are often about one-twelfth the size of the originals, and
the limit in size may perhaps be considered to detract from the value of
the reproductions. This, however, has been considered, as far as possible,
in selecting the examples chosen. A strong, impulsive design does not
depend entirely upon size for the force of its appeal, nor does it change
in character from being reduced; but a poster badly designed, though
passable on a large scale, may be an unintelligible jumble in a small
illustration. In many cases a design is knit together by its reduction,
and so viewed as a whole more compactly. Its publication in book form
gives it also a permanence and ultimately a wider audience than the
original can hope to gain.
This thought of the ephemeral character of the poster as such has, in the
first instance, prompted the publication of this volume. A poster serving
the purposes of a war, even of such a world cataclysm as that during which
we have passed during the last five years, is by its nature a creation of
the moment, its business being to seize an opportunity as it passes, to
force a sentiment into a great passion, to answer an immediate need, or to
illuminate an episode which may be forgotten in the tremendous sequence of
a few days' events. In its brief existence the poster is battered by the
rain or faded by the sun, then pasted over with another message more
urgent still. Save for the very limited number of copies that wise
collectors have preserved, the actual posters of the Great War will be
lost and forgotten in fifty years.
But we must not forget that in every country concerned the poster played
its part as an essential munition of war. Look through any collection of
them, and you will see portrayed, in picture and in legend, which he who
runs may read, the whole history of the Great War in its political and
economical aspects. The posters of 1914-1918 illustrate every phase and
difficulty and movement--recruiting for naval, military, and air forces;
munition works; war loans; hospitals; Red Cross; Y.M.C.A.; Church Army;
food economy; land cultivation; women's work of many kinds; prisoners'
aid--and hundreds of problems and activities in connection with the
country's needs. The same sequence of needs can be traced in the posters
of Germany and Austria, where a stress even greater than our own is
revealed, not merely in the urgent appeals for contributions to war loans,
but in the sale by German women of their jewels and their hair.
For obvious reasons only a limited number of the posters could be
reproduced in colour, the main portion of the plates in the book being in
black and white. But since the primary element counting for success in the
poster is design, it follows that excellent colouring will not save a
badly-designed poster from failure, however much it enhances the power of
one already successful. Indeed, we may go further and claim that
ineffective or quite bad colouring often fails to mar entirely the success
of a good design. The examples selected are not heavy losers by being
reproduced mostly in monotone; for they are essentially posters depending
on design and not merely pictorial advertisements. Their purpose is innate
in their structure; they have their story to tell and message to deliver;
it is their business to waylay and hold the passer-by, and to impose their
meaning upon him. The best of them have done this brilliantly.
II.--GREAT BRITAIN
Shortly after the War began, an "Exhibition of German and Austrian
Articles typifying Design" was arranged at the Goldsmiths' Hall, to show
the directions in which we had lessons to learn from German
trade-competitors as to the combination of Art and economy applied to
ordinary articles of commerce. The walls were hung with German posters,
and one felt at once that while our average poster cost perhaps six times
as much to produce, it was inferior to its German rival in just those
vital qualities of concentrated design, whether of colour or form, and
those powers of seizing attention, which are essential to the very nature
of a poster.
While we have had individual poster artists, such as Nicholson, Pryde, and
Beardsley, whose work has touched perhaps a higher level than has ever
been reached on the Continent, our general conception of what is good and
valuable in a poster has been almost entirely wrong. The advertising agent
and the business firm rarely get away from the popular idea that a poster
must be a picture, and that the purpose of every picture is to "point a
moral and adorn a tale." They seldom realise that poster art and
pictorial art have essentially different aims. If a British firm wishes to
advertise beer, it insists on an artist producing a picture of a
publican's brawny and veined arm holding out a pot of beer during closed
hours to a policeman; or a Gargantuan bottle towering above the houses and
dense crowds of a market-place; or a fox-terrier climbing on to a table
and wondering what it is "master likes so much"--all in posters produced
at great expense with an enormous range of colour. The German, on the
other hand--there was an example at the Goldsmiths' Hall--designs a single
pot of amber, foaming beer, with the name of the firm in one good spot of
lettering below. It is printed at small cost, in two or three flat
colours; but it shouts "beer" at the passer-by. It would make even Mr.
Pussyfoot thirsty to glance at it.
Our British love for a story in a picture has accounted for an immense
amount of ingenious artistry falling into amorphous ineffectiveness. It is
the essence of the poster that it should compel attention; grip by an
instantaneous appeal; hit out, as it were, with a straight left. It must
convey an idea rather than a story. From its very nature it must be
simple, not complex, in its methods. If it has something eccentric or
bizarre about it, so long as it is good in design, that is a good quality
rather than a fault. Even about the best of our war posters one feels that
they are too often enlarged drawings, excellent as lithographs to preserve
in a collector's portfolio, but ineffective when valued in relation to
the essential services that a poster is required to render. We must
regretfully admit that when it comes to choosing illustrations for a
volume such as this on their merits as posters, not as pictures, it is
difficult not to give a totally disproportionate space to posters made in
Germany.
Our British war posters are too well known and too recent in our memory to
require any lengthy introduction or comment. The first official
recognition of their value to the nation was during the recruiting
campaign which began towards the close of 1914. The Parliamentary
Recruiting Committee gave commissions for more than a hundred posters, of
which two and a half million copies were distributed throughout the
British Isles. We hope it is not true that, in their wisdom and aloofness,
they refused the offer of a free gift of a six-sheet poster by Mr. Frank
Brangwyn, R.A. It is, at any rate, certain that they possessed a poor
degree of artistic perception, and, added to this, a very low notion of
the mentality of the British public. Hardly one of the early posters had
the slightest claim to recognition as a product of fine art; most of them
were examples of what any art school would teach should be avoided in
crude design and atrocious lettering. Among the best and most efficient,
however, may be mentioned Alfred Leete's "Kitchener." But if one compares
Leete's head of Kitchener, "Your Country Needs You," with Louis
Oppenheim's "Hindenburg," the latter, with its rugged force and reserve of
colour, stands as an example of the direction in which Germany tends to
beat us in poster art.
While these early official posters perhaps served their purpose--and if
they did, it was thanks to the good spirit of the British public and not
to the artistic merit of the posters themselves--a series of recruiting
posters was issued by the London Electric Railways Company. Even before
the War, this Company, or rather their business manager, Mr. F. Pick (for
in regard to posters Mr. Pick might well say "L'etat, c'est moi"), was
setting an example in poster work by securing the services of the best
artists of the day. Their recruiting posters were a real contribution to
modern art. They served their purpose, and at the same time were dignified
in conception, design, and draughtsmanship. Standing high among them in
nobility of appeal and power of drawing were Brangwyn's "Britain's Call to
Arms," and Spencer Pryse's "Only Road for an Englishman."
Though they were not issued till 1916, we might mention here the series
published by the London Electric Railways Company at the time when the
restrictions regarding paper prevented the general distribution of posters
at home. It was then that the Company thought of the friendly idea of
sending to our troops overseas a greeting of the kind so many of them had
been familiar with in old days in London. Four posters, to awaken thoughts
of pleasant homely things, were sent out for use in dug-outs and huts in
France and other places abroad. Each was headed with the words: "The
Underground Railways of London, knowing how many of their passengers are
now engaged on important business in France and other parts of the world,
send out this reminder of home." The drawings were the free gifts of the
artists who designed them--George Clausen, R.A., Charles Sims, R.A., F.
Ernest Jackson, and J. Walter West. It was a most admirable idea,
admirably carried out, and, as were their recruiting posters, a pronounced
testimony to the patriotic and disinterested attitude of a great business
institution. Everyone who served abroad knows how much these posters were
appreciated as a decoration in Army messes, Y.M.C.A. huts, and elsewhere.
To return to the official use of posters, very much better work was
produced in 1915 by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, and also under
the auspices of the Ministry of Information, the authorities having
learned at last that, at home, a poster might be a work of art, and that,
abroad, an "official artist" might be deemed worthy of a subaltern's rank,
rations, and emoluments. Among good posters for which the Government was
at this time responsible may be mentioned Bernard Partridge's "Take up the
Sword of Justice," Guy Lipscombe's "Our Flag," Doris Hatt's "St. George,"
Caffyn's "Come along, Boys," and Ravenhill's "The Watchers of the Seas."
In this connection it is amusing to recall a wireless message circulated
from Berlin on October 2, 1915, in which appeared the statement: "To-day
the exhibition of all English recruiting posters published up to the
present was opened for the benefit of the German Aeronautic Fund. The
exhibition is a great material success, notwithstanding the general
disappointment at the poor and inartistic designs." It is, of course, an
essential part of national propaganda to decry the quality of whatever is
produced by the enemy; but we must admit that in this instance some truth
was embodied in the judgment of these hostile critics. It came as a
wholesome counterblast to the probably inspired laudatory articles which a
little before this date had appeared in our own Press telling us of
"several million of forceful and often fine" posters, and that "the
hoardings of England have never borne a better message conveyed in a
better manner." That many of the posters were comparative failures goes
without saying: and there was one real blunder. In connection with the War
Savings Campaign the Ministry had the excellent idea of using as a poster
Whistler's famous masterpiece--his "Portrait of the Artist's Mother," now
in the Louvre. Nothing could have been better: but then they got someone
to write across the beautiful background, in paltry lettering, "Old age
must come." There could be no better example of our British idea of
enforcing a moral. It was an act of vandalism--impossible in
France--almost as cruel as the firing of a shell into Rheims Cathedral.
And Whistler, who spent hours in considering where he should place his
dainty little butterfly signature, must have turned in his grave, or
wished that he could have returned to earth to produce a new edition of
his "Gentle Art of Making Enemies."
To Mr. G. Spencer Pryse belongs the honour of first realising in actual
productions the needs of the time. Mr. Pryse was in Antwerp at the
outbreak of war, and thus was an eye-witness of much of the tragedy which
overtook Belgium. On the actual scenes of the evacuation were founded his
pathetic lithograph of the Belgian refugees struggling into steamers to
escape from the advancing terror. Shortly after, he obtained a commission
to act as a despatch-rider for the Belgian Government, in which capacity
he visited all parts of the front line both in Belgium and in France, and
saw a good deal of desultory fighting. Before he was wounded, he drew
several of the series of nine lithographs entitled "The Autumn Campaign,
1914," which were published early in 1915. His poster "The Only Road for
an Englishman" was of the same period, followed soon afterwards by his
powerful pictorial appeal on behalf of the Belgian Red Cross Fund. It is
interesting to know that even under the most difficult conditions, and
under fire, his drawings were made, not on paper, but on actual
lithographic stones carried for the purpose in his motor-car.
The outstanding figure among poster artists, both in quantity and for
technical accomplishment, was Mr. Frank Brangwyn, R.A. His "Britain's Call
to Arms" was produced in 1914 by the Underground Railways Company, and
circulated in large numbers. The huge lithographic stone upon which this
was drawn was subsequently presented, as the joint gift of Sir Charles
Cheers Wakefield, Lord Mayor of London, and the artist, to the Victoria
and Albert Museum, where it is preserved and exhibited. His invention and
activity as a designer of war posters were very considerable. The number
of poster designs from his hand produced during the War is at least fifty,
without taking into account such additional work as the propaganda
lithographs published by the Ministry of Information. Though Mr.
Brangwyn's first war poster was prepared in conjunction with the
Underground Railways, he was always willing and eager to make designs for
any deserving cause, and among the committees he assisted by his vigorous
work may be named the 1914 War Society, the Belgian and Allies' Aid
League, the National Institute for the Blind, and the _Daily Mail_ Red
Cross Fund. Practically all these posters were done as a free gift by the
artist; and their number and quality stand as a splendid record of
national service. Heaven preserve Mr. Brangwyn from an O.B.E.! But one
wonders whether the Government has no suitable reward for one who spared
no effort and sacrificed himself and his time and talent in a purely
impersonal desire to serve his country.
III.--FRANCE
Before the Beggarstaff Brothers initiated the reform movement in British
poster art--the early phase of which, despite the effective colour sense
of Walter Crane, passed away all too soon with the death of Aubrey
Beardsley--Cheret, Steinlen, and Mucha were already at work in France, the
first and eldest of these masters being practically the creator of the
modern poster in its more individual characteristics. A good deal of the
Victorian heaviness was still with us in the eighteen-nineties: we liked
good solid meals; our theatres offered us feasts of ponderous
sentimentality; and so the British merchant and advertising agent,
employing a poster artist, bade him tell us of the things we liked
best--sauces, soaps, melodramas, tea, and stout. For still the idea was
prevalent that the successful advertiser appealed to his public most when
he told them about something they already knew and liked: a sweet domestic
scene to linger in the memory after dinner and remind them of Tompkins'
pills; or a pleasant landscape executed with a kaleidoscopic richness of
colour to persuade one to buy Fishville Sauce. There were, of course,
many striking exceptions to this; but it was generally true enough to
justify the American observer's criticism that British posters mostly
depicted things to eat, or soap.
But France, being by temperament, by environment, and by tradition a far
more artistic nation, with a much higher standard of general taste,
responded more readily to the lighter and more fascinating touch of those
artists who chose the street and the theatre entrance as their gallery. It
is more than fifty years since Cheret started on his flamboyant comet-like
career, setting Paris aflame (so to speak) with joyously wild,
irresponsible visions of colour and line, delicate and fantastic.
Steinlen, Mucha, Grasset, Toulouse-Lautrec, Willette, Bonnard, Guillaume,
and others worked with him in more recent days, and among these are
artists who have done masterly posters for France during the War.
It is still with the greatest reluctance that a drawing, even when it
conveys a definite suggestion clearly, is accepted in England unless it is
"finished": the value of a work of art is reckoned in accordance with the
amount of patient craftsmanship which it displays. The French poster
artist, on the contrary--and he obviously has the public as his supporter,
or his vogue would cease--is often content to throw upon the space at his
command what, on this side of the Channel, any advertising agent would
scoff at and reject as a "mere sketch." If the French artist can convey
his suggestion, his idea, in a few hasty lines or brilliant touches of
colour, he knows that his work is done, and is well content.
Looking at the French war posters as a whole, one feels that in no other
country has there been the same poignant appeal, the same presence of a
deeply-felt emotion. And these have been transferred to the posters with a
spontaneity, a lightness, and an expressive sufficiency that make the
French poster stand alone. Take the posters of Steinlen, Faivre, Willette,
Poulbot, and that versatile master, Roll, whose death occurred while these
notes were being prepared. They each have the brilliant quality of a
sketch by a man who is master of his material. They are drawn with the
fine, free gesture of the born narrator. All the balance and compactness
of the French _conte_ are there, with every line inducing to intensity of
expression. In the figures there is nothing of English photographic
precision, nothing of Germany's force and brutality, but always a note of
intense sympathy, of something subtly human. Rapid, slight, they may be;
but there is a greatness and endurance in their design and their appeal.
The _poilu_, in the trenches or _en permission_, the _gamin_ of the
streets, the worker in the field or hospital, the invalid who has been
smitten by the heavy blows of war, are alive in these swift chalk-drawn
studies.
The whole difference between the British and the French outlook is summed
up in Jules Abel Faivre's poster for the _Journee Nationale des
Tuberculeux_, with the poignant appeal of the figure in its luminous
envelopment of sea and sky. There is no need for any vandal to write his
descriptive note across the face of this to drive its message home. The
sad tale is told at a glance; and its brief legend--"Sauvons-les" (Let us
save them)--is not necessary to make the meaning clear, but rather it
delivers an additional message--a note of resolution and purpose--to the
awakened sympathy when the picture has done its work. Here everything
necessary is said: not a superfluous touch to mar its purpose, nor a touch
too little. Yet an English advertiser would never have been content with
those two comforting hands which pathetically suggest so much. The
suggestion to him would have been totally inadequate, and he would have
insisted on a full-length nurse in uniform, or a hospital ward, and
medicine bottles, and all sorts of needless detail.
In the earliest months of the War France was perhaps too heavily shocked
by the onslaught, and too busily engaged in material organisation, to give
much attention to the subject of posters. But for the _Journee du Poilu_
at Christmas-time, 1915 Steinlen, Faivre, Neumon, Poulbot, and Willette
contributed designs which immediately set upon French war posters the
stamp of genuine understanding of the purpose in view and appreciation of
the material at disposal. So, through a long series of War Loan posters,
"Flag-day" appeals, and posters relating to every phase of life where
advertisement could be a valuable thing till the welcome end was reached,
French artists produced an incomparable variety of brilliant designs, in
which gaiety, pathos, humour, and tragedy were touched with a
characteristic lightness of hand, and often touched with true greatness of
conception.
Among those who have done the most distinguished work the artists named
above have contributed a large proportion. Jules Abel Faivre, whose
"Sauvons-les" has already been referred to at length, has perhaps earned
more individual fame by his designs than any other French poster artist
during the War. Several of his lithographs approach greatness, and
two--the "Sauvons-les" and "On les aura!" both of which are illustrated in
this book--can be said confidently to attain it. In its way nothing could
be better also than Poulbot's sketch of children collecting for the
_Journee du Poilu_--"Pour que papa vienne en permission, s'il vous plait."
This artist has done several other very excellent posters, showing an
intense understanding and appreciation of child life. The humour of
Willette, exemplified in the delightful "Enfin seuls...!", reproduced here
as illustration No. 31, and the dramatic sense of Charles Fouqueray, find
ample material for expression, and in their hands it is finely used. Roll,
the more complete artist, versatile and subtle in his work, master of many
styles, proved that he, too, could design an appealing poster, as the
fifth plate in this book testifies.
The poster artists of France were not to the same degree overshadowed by
one great executant as were those of England by Brangwyn. But for all
that, a figure stands out before the rest, both by his power as a
craftsman and the weight and strength of his individual characteristics.
Theophile Alexandre Steinlen was at work upon posters twenty-five years
ago, and even then he ranked among the first three or four leaders of this
branch of art. Like Brangwyn in England, he is a master of the medium he
uses--a great lithographer, whose consummate sense of draughtsmanship and
design serves him in the expression of noble thought and in portraying the
emotions of a profound, large-hearted patriot.
Mention must also be made of the posters by the distinguished Alsatian
artist Hansi--a keen patriot, who was willing to spend himself generously
in the service of an Alsace longing for freedom from the yoke of Germany.
The German Government offered a reward for information that should lead to
his arrest, and issued proclamations to that effect, ostensibly on the
plea that he had evaded service in their army, but actually because of the
pen and brush that in his hands were powerful weapons which they could not
afford to despise. His posters depict the fraternisation of French
soldiers with the people of Alsace, and one of them the raising of the
victorious tricolour once more over the Cathedral of Strasbourg. All
honour to the artist, who, in the face of danger, and a fugitive from
death, remained the supporter of a cause still far off from victory--a
patriot whose work was full of courage and hope for an oppressed people.
IV.--GERMANY: AUSTRO-HUNGARY.
Though we are dealing in this volume with pictorial posters, it is
difficult to refrain from mentioning the poster proclamations issued by
the Germans on their occupation of Belgium. Many of these proclamations,
of great historical interest, are in the possession of the Imperial War
Museum. One of the earliest, posted at Hasselt on August 17, 1914,
immediately after the occupation of the town, threatens to kill a third of
the male inhabitants should the German troops be fired upon. Another,
posted in Andenne on August 21, 1914, states that by order of the German
authorities about three hundred inhabitants had been massacred or burnt
alive, and that those of the men who were unscathed were taken as hostages
and the women made to clear away the pools of blood and remove the
corpses.
The most poignant of these poster proclamations are two in regard to the
executions of Nurse Cavell and Captain Fryatt. The bill, signed by General
von Bissing, October 12, 1915, issued at Brussels and printed in French on
blue paper, announces that Nurse Cavell has been shot, with others.
Captain Fryatt had also been shot before the publication of the
proclamation relative to him. This document, signed by Admiral von
Schroeder, dated at Bruges, July 27, 1916, and printed in German, Flemish,
and French, in parallel sections, reads:
"Charles Fryatt, of Southampton, captain in the English Merchant
Service, who, although not enrolled in the armed forces of the enemy,
attempted on March 28, 1915, to destroy a German submarine by
ramming. For this act he was condemned to death by the Naval Council
of War and executed. A perverse act thus received its just, if tardy,
chastisement."
The only known copy of this poster is in the possession of the French
Government, as evidence of German iniquity for which reparation must be
exacted. It is worth noting that all these proclamations are rude
specimens of typography, a fact indicating the difficulty which the
Germans had in getting them printed.
When we pass to the pictorial posters of Germany and Austro-Hungary, we
find that the Central Empires, like ourselves and our Allies, found the
necessity for a constant stream of posters appealing to their peoples for
aid in men and money for the prosecution of the War and for stimulating
love of country as expressed in the resolution and determination to hold
out to the last. But though the nature of the national appeals are akin,
the posters of Germany and Austro-Hungary (we need scarcely continue to
distinguish between them) disclose the varying national temperament and
idiosyncrasy.
Since the days of Duerer and Holbein, Germany has been barren in pictorial
art. In all her applied arts, as well as in her graphic arts, she has
followed a policy of skilful adaptation, borrowing and remoulding on more
economic lines the best products of other countries.[2] On the one
hand--in the years before the war--the sanest British methods of
typography and book production were deliberately imported into Germany; on
the other hand, the most freakish of cubist and vorticist paintings found
in Germany their principal buyers. If any note was added to what she
adapted, it was that of an additional violence--the open assertion of
Germany's idea that "force is beauty."
The war posters of Germany act as a mirror to German mentality. They dwell
chiefly on one thing--force. Subjects and treatment are often crude and
brutal, marked by a scorn and avoidance of human sympathy. Here and there
we find a certain sensuous beauty, but, as a rule, they look on life with
a coldness that is almost cynicism, an impassiveness that is nearer
cruelty than pity. The remotest student could deduce a clear idea of the
enormous gulf that lies between the national temperament of Germany and of
France by a comparison of the posters of Engelhard, Leonard, and Erler
with those of Steinlen, Faivre, Roll, Poulbot, and Willette.
But when all that is said, one has to admit that the German, above all
others, does grasp the essential value of the poster as a means to an end.
He realises that in the best poster there must be something of what was
aimed at in the Post-Impressionist movement in painting, a desire for
summarised form, strong and simplified line, and the reduction of tones to
an arbitrary convention. And though we have used the word
"Post-Impressionism," we are only suggesting that the poster should
accomplish what the stained-glass window at its best--with a religious
instead of propagandist or commercial purpose--accomplished five hundred
years ago. While the British poster must see everything in the round, must
try to reproduce all that is intensely obvious in the varied texture and
material pageantry and inexhaustible colouring of life, Germany is rightly
content to be deliberately abstract, to seek the common factors from what
is large and general, and to endeavour to find symbols to express ideas.
She is not concerned with the pursuit of spiritual or physical beauty, but
with a striking novelty or decorative composition. The colour schemes of
the German posters are more curious and insistent than attractive, but
they do possess that knock-down force which, after all, is the object of a
poster. Its pictorial quality is a secondary matter; if it is a fine
piece of wall decoration that one would like to live with, so much the
better; but its function is to arrest and to make itself remembered.
Indeed, the poster must be like a beacon set on a hill to which all eyes
must go, all roads must seem inevitably to lead. The beacon is a flare in
the night; the poster must act as a flare in the day.
The famous sentence from the Academy discourses of Sir Joshua Reynolds,
which is inscribed as a motto over the entrance to the Victoria and Albert
Museum--a sentence much quoted during the Victorian era, but in these
latter days perhaps little regarded--may be applied to the poster equally
as to more durable and delightful works: "The excellence of every art must
consist in the complete accomplishment of its purpose." If the poster
which accomplishes its purpose is indeed the most "artistic," then Germany
excels in the artistic poster. It may be brutal, it may be ugly, it may
even shock and repel; but there is always in the best examples, instinct
in their very conception, a definite purpose which gains full expression,
because the artist has been trained to limit himself to what he has to
say, and to say that with all his might.
The illustrations to this volume include work by several of the German
poster artists, which, symptomatic of the whole, will serve to illustrate
the foregoing remarks. Mention has already been made in the section
dealing with British posters of the strong, rugged simplicity of Louis
Oppenheim's "Hindenburg." The artist has in this most successfully
imposed upon the spectator, not the bolstered-up individual of real life,
but the strong, massive calm we seek for in the ideal leader, the man in
whom we can place entire confidence. It is thus, in addition to being a
successful poster, a piece of successful propaganda. But as its strength
is in its reserve and the quiet it imposes, so in Engelhard you get
passion released and surging over the onlooker with its flood of hatred.
His "Nein! Niemals!" (illustration No. 43) is a powerful instance of this.
It is almost impossible to look at the grasping, claw-like hands and
ravenous face without a fury of hate, and a realisation of how Germany
mastered her people. "Elend und Untergang folgen der Anarchie" (Misery and
Destruction follow Anarchy), a poster of the German Revolution by the same
artist, is another example of intense force, but this time, for all the
brutality of the bestial gorilla figure, wonderfully held in reserve and
simple. Bearing a curious comparison with the Czecho-Slovak posters by
Preissig, published in New York during the last stages of the War, is the
German War Loan poster (illustration No. 35, used also as a design for the
back of the cover) by Otto Leonard, "Zereisst Englands Macht" (Rend
England's Might). Wohlfeld's poster appealing for women's hair, which is
reproduced as a frontispiece, and the poster of the Ludendorff Fund for
those disabled by the War (illustration No. 46), show other phases of
strength and reserve equally good in their way.
The poster used for the front cover of this book is, apart from its own
intrinsic merit, a matter of historical interest, insomuch as it served as
a figure in the notorious speech to the German National Assembly at Berlin
on May 12, 1919, when the peace terms had been handed to the
plenipotentiaries at Versailles. Herr Scheidemann in the course of his
denunciation of the Allies' terms said:
"Ladies and Gentlemen,--All over Berlin we see posters which are
intended to arouse a practical love for our brothers in captivity;
sad, hopeless faces behind prison bars. That is the proper
frontispiece for the so-called Peace Treaty; that is the true
portrait of Germany's future: sixty millions behind barbed wire and
prison bars; sixty millions at hard labour, for whom the enemy will
make their own land a prison camp."
The Austrian poster artists, Krafter, Arpellus, and Puchinger, did
important work, examples of which are reproduced in this book; but several
of the Hungarian artists, in particular, did distinguished posters, as
will be seen by a reference to illustration No. 41, that by Biro, No. 57,
and the little group by Biro and Kurthy, Nos. 59, 61, and 62.
V.--UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
It is a commonplace to say that America is the true home of the
advertisement agent; but in considering the history of poster art in the
United States, one is surprised to find that so small a proportion of work
done in the past shows any striking originality or real grip. In a country
whose special capacity has seemed to consist in beating a very large drum
repeatedly, often without much provocation, it was to be expected that the
very bones and sinews of a poster should be understood, and that results
of the highest order should have been obtained. Contrary to this
expectation, only a small group of artists doing important work can be
named as illustrating the best ability of the revival which, awaking with
Cheret, Steinlen, and the others in France, spread to England, and thence
normally to America. Of this group, the most able and important exponents
of the art were often frankly derivative in their work. Will H. Bradley
designed a number of posters which, with those of Penfield, may be said to
have brought about the birth of poster art in the United States; but his
most successful designs were openly based on the work of Aubrey Beardsley,
the originality, charm, and extravagance of whose genius had recently
taken the whole art world by storm. And Edward Penfield, whose pronounced
ability seemed largely directed to the assimilation of different styles,
produced posters excellent in their order, but most of them obvious work
by a devoted and imaginative disciple of half a dozen schools varying
during the long process of his development. We find him, for instance,
producing an admirable American Steinlen in 1897, so clearly and frankly
in Steinlen's spirit, yet with such artistic ability and undoubted
personality that it could be placed beside the great French master's work,
be identified with it, and yet retain its own character. This, while
excellent in its way, is of course by no means provocative of a real
national school, but rather serves to cramp the steps of later exponents
of the art, and render their work lifeless; and one is not surprised to
find that, after the days of Penfield, Bradley, and Gould, a good many
years passed without any striking development in poster art in America.
The last ten years, however, have discovered artists of pronounced
originality and genius, and the posters of Robert Wildhack, Adolph
Treidler, and Maxfield Parrish--to mention only three of the most eminent
of their designers of the days immediately before the War--testified to
the existence of a genuine national school, and led one to expect vital
results in the production of posters inspired by the great world upheaval.
In this, indeed, were the very elements needed to call out the utmost
ability of the national artists. The United States--we say it with all
respect--has a keener eye for advertisement than any other nation. Let
the American loose on a "whirlwind campaign"--whether in aid of church
funds, an enormous commercial enterprise, or a world war--and he is in his
element. All the possibilities of sign-boards, hoardings, flashlights, and
every novelty and contrivance for catching the public eye, have been
carried to their farthest limit, either of invention or of human
endurance, on the other side of the Atlantic; and behind all this is the
driving power of an intense, restless energy. It is not our place to speak
here of the battlefields of Europe, and of how that energy and activity
were thrown into the scale to weigh down the balance which had been
trembling for so long. But in the United States, as elsewhere, it was
inevitable that posters should be among the first munitions of war, and it
was to be anticipated that, learning their lesson from the experiences of
countries engaged in the struggle whilst their own yet remained in the
position of a spectator, the State departments would improve upon the
machinery which Europe had produced in this particular cause. To some
extent this was done. As regards the magnitude of output, never was there
such facility in the production of posters. Immediately on the outbreak of
war, the Army, the Navy, and the Treasury Departments plunged into an orgy
of advertisement, and employed not only their national artists, but men
among the Allies and neutrals who had done distinguished work in the cause
of universal freedom. That these artists were not slow to avail
themselves of this new field for their restless energies is witnessed by
the work done by Brangwyn and Raemaekers, who, like knights-errant,
plunged with enthusiasm into this new campaign. Jonas, too, the French
lithographer, was among the artists of other nations employed by the
United States, and one of his posters--"Four Years in the Fight"--aiming
to provide houses of cheer for the women of France, is reproduced in
illustration No. 68.
We cannot, however, too often reiterate the fact that it is not enough to
have a pronounced conviction and a definite purpose in doing things of
this kind to do them well. The best poster artists--and here again we may
instance Steinlen, Brangwyn and Pryse--are generally craftsmen of the
highest order, having a very true sense of the historical development, and
a perfect acquaintance with the mechanism and technique, of their art.
This knowledge counts enormously, and is visible in the whole structure of
the work produced. The bureaucrat who sits in his office conducting a
hurried campaign on the telephone, and patronising art when at length it
proves necessary to the community, fails on account of his ignorance of
the real roots of the matter. The nation needed posters, so the American
bureaucrat, like his brother in Whitehall, issued orders for posters to be
designed--in much the same way as the British Food Controller ordered
bacon to be provided, without a staff of provision experts to see that it
was first properly cured.
It is, perhaps, a pity that Mr. Joseph Pennell's book on his own Liberty
Loan poster[3] was not written as a textbook for the use of Government
Departments earlier in the day. The writing of an elaborate treatise on a
single war poster may seem at first sight to be giving altogether
disproportionate importance even to an admirable example of this type of
art, and it is in danger of placing the exponent under the accusation of
appreciating his own labours at an excessively high value. But when all
things like this have been said, the fact remains that the volume is a
serious and dignified exposition of a fine poster by a craftsman who
considers that due weight should be given to all that pertains to its
actual production, from the original conception of the design to the
satisfactory register and inking of the final stone. It should act as a
wholesome corrective of the usual slipshod treatment accorded to the
artist. Mr. Pennell is at least an enthusiastic lithographer. He knows the
business right through; and his little series of essays should leave his
reader convinced that a poster grows in power and influence upon the
spectator just in accordance with the genuine craftsmanship displayed in
it.
The total effect of a poster is cumulative: we feel its design; but we
feel its design more strongly for its fitting colour scheme; and still
more strongly when the designer knows and works upon all the subtle
qualities and texture of the stone he uses. For its maximum influence the
poster must be designed by a skilled lithographic artist (if lithography
should be the medium chosen), executed upon stone by him, and printed
either by him or under his direct supervision. It is the failure to
appreciate this which has marred so many of the United States posters, and
made them of little importance. Anyone who could draw has been considered
suitable for the task of designing; anyone who could print has been
considered equal to printing their posters. And so we have a great mass of
work, some lithographed, some photo-lithographed, some produced from
photo-process blocks in colour on varieties of glazed, unsuitable papers;
but very few which leave one with the cool, satisfied feeling that here is
good work well done. The influence of a work of art is an elusive thing,
easily lost; and to a full understanding of it years of special training
are necessary. The passer in the street may be unaware of the causes of
his admiration or sympathy, but the effects upon him have been proved
times without number.
Necessarily, however, there are many exceptions to this general failure in
craftsmanship, cases in which artists triumphed over all mechanical
obstacles, and instances of great lithographic firms, with contracts from
the Government, who were skilled in poster production and able to act in
genuine consonance with the designers. If we set up a well-defined
standard, and place in the front rank men like Raleigh, Treidler, Pennell,
and Young, who are very able lithographic artists, producing posters of a
high order, there still remains a large group of designers whose work may
be characterised as possessing, in a pronounced degree, what has been
described as the "poster sense." They may not have the craftsmanship to
make the poster all that--viewed as a complete artistic production--it
should be; but there is "punch" in their sure and speedy way of conveying
a message, in the pithiness and wit of their legends. Above all, they
possess a great humanity--that sense of human suffering to be relieved,
human wrongs to be righted, which kept the United States a beneficent
neutral so long, and at length called her into the War. This is
exemplified in their very best work. Raleigh's "Must Children Die, and
Mothers Plead in Vain?" reproduced in No. 63, nobly illustrates it.
Several other fine posters by this artist, in a style perhaps reminiscent
of Brangwyn, yet full of original energy and stirred by genuine passion,
deal with the same or similar sentiments. A large number of posters of
varying merit follow this lead: "America the Home of All who Suffer, the
Dread of All who Wrong," runs the legend on a poster by Paus; "Remember
Belgium--Buy Bonds," says another; and it is a general strain.
The recruiting posters in particular have a freedom of design, a vigour
and grip, which really tell. For when America came into the War, she
started to hustle with all the feverish pent-up energy characteristic of
the race. Posters like Christy's pretty girl in naval uniform exclaiming,
"Gee! I wish I were a Man. I'd join the Navy"; Bancroft's ringing "To
Arms!" and Whitehead's "Come on!" show a vigour and freshness which our
official British recruiting posters never possessed. There was an air of
glad youth in them which came like a Spring wind over our war-weary
spirits.
In America, as elsewhere, all forms of activity were announced by
posters--Recruiting, Food Economy, Red Cross Work, Homes for Women in
France, War Loans, the organising of Polish and Czecho-Slovak citizens,[4]
all kinds of propaganda, were advertised by this means.
It is unnecessary to draw further attention to Mr. Pennell's poster, "That
Liberty shall not Perish from the Earth." He states his own intention in
designing it: "My idea was New York City bombed, shot down, burning, blown
up by an enemy, and this idea I have tried to carry out." He conveys, in
an effective colour scheme, the impression of a purely imaginary
air-raid--a raid that never was on sea or land--with results highly
picturesque and impossible. It is to be reckoned, however, as one of the
successful posters of the War.
Adolph Treidler in several designs has justified the expectations founded
on his pre-war work, as will be seen from one of his posters here
reproduced (illustration No. 66). The work of Young and Morgan is worthy
of the highest commendation; and for Raleigh's steady craftsmanship and
noble designs there can be nothing but praise.
VI.--OTHER COUNTRIES
To make a comprehensive survey of posters related to the War in all
countries where they were issued would be a formidable task, not so much
on account of the quantity of work of outstanding artistic merit, but
because the range and variety of mediocre posters, which probably answered
their purpose with tolerable efficiency at the moment, is so very
extensive. All the nations engaged in the combat had something to proclaim
in this manner, often a message of life or death, and others had much to
display in propaganda posters all over the world.
Of the chief belligerents not yet mentioned, it is notable that Italy, the
native home of the arts, produced few posters of the ordinary type that
possessed either originality or definite individual character. The
journalistic cartoon, always a powerful means of propaganda in Italy, had
a great vogue in the earliest months of the war; and the most popular and
able artists of the country fought for the Allied cause with an abandon
and self-denial that one remembers with the warmest gratitude. In June and
July, 1916, an exhibition of drawings was held at the Leicester Galleries,
entitled "Italian Artists and the War." There were several actual poster
designs, but by far the larger proportion of the drawings exhibited
consisted of war cartoons and caricatures akin to those of Raemaekers and
Dyson, though prints from them were extensively displayed upon newspaper
bills and walls in Rome and other Italian cities. Serving a double
purpose, they were to this extent small posters, and cannot be dismissed
without some word of the high praise due to them. Such an incessant and
effective war was waged upon Germany and German ideals by these cartoons
that, before Italy threw in her lot with the Allies, the Embassies of the
Central Powers sought to stay their issue, and to that end prosecuted the
most prolific and merciless of the cartoonists, Gabriele Galantara.
Cynicism, scorn, contempt, and an utter abhorrence of Germany and all her
acts are expressed in these impulsive sketches; and it is no wonder that
they acted as a powerful spur upon the Italian people, showing which way
led towards freedom and humanity. It would seem, however, that this great
campaign, begun so early by the Italian artists before their nation was
ready to participate in the struggle, and continued with a violent energy
during the earliest months of Italian fighting, exhausted their resources
to a considerable extent. Moreover, many of the most eminent among
them--Sachetti, Oppo, Ventura, Codognato, and others--at once joined the
Italian forces, mostly as combatants, and a few older men, like Pogliaghi,
accompanied the armies to illustrate, in thrilling terms, the formidable
achievements of their country amid the mighty fastnesses of the Tyrol.
When the time arrived for the Italian Government to issue War Loan and
other posters, the most capable of her designers were no longer
accessible.
The experience of other nations shows that really noble posters have been
produced through artists being inspired by the cause rather than as a
result of their employment by the State. Italy proved no exception to
this. Such of her best designers as were left still devoted their energies
to the production of cartoons; and in due time others returned to their
previous work, wounded, like Oppo, cartoonist of the _Idea Nationale_,
who, when the 130th Infantry Regiment was annihilated in July, 1915, was
one of the five survivors, and came back to his paper with a useless arm,
to wage war as of old for land and liberty. The cartoon being thus the
most natural means of propaganda in Italy, such posters of the ordinary
type as were produced were, in consequence, of an extremely secondary
order; so much so that, in making a selection to exhibit at the Grafton
Galleries in June, 1919, the Imperial War Museum chose only eight to
represent Italy, and of the eight three were posters advertising
Raemaekers' cartoons. One of these, "Neutral America and the Hun," is
reproduced in illustration 75. Among the actual Italian examples, Barchi's
"Sotto-scrivete" and Mauzan's "Fate tutti il vostro dovere" alone were
notable.
Greece, on the contrary, showed a considerable facility in the production
of war posters. But anxious as one is to consider in a favourable light
whatever artistic creation emanates from the land which inspired and
nourished Western art in its infancy, it is impossible to regard their war
posters with anything more than an indulgent eye. Mr. Pennell, in his
little book to which we have already referred, has claimed all notable
productions in decorative art through the ages as posters, and would bid
us look on the frieze of the Parthenon as an excellent piece of Greek
poster art. It is a wild application, not to be taken too seriously.
Modern art is not necessarily a development from the art of other ages;
and even where the form is comparable, the purpose is widely divergent.
For a vital modern art is for ever the expression of a new spirit, the
revelation of a fresh aspect of life, another facet of a many-sided jewel;
and it is this unexpected quality, the surprise of this revelation, which
is so valuable to the world. Nothing new, nothing fresh, appeared in the
Greek posters: tame and poor in line, meagre in their quality as
reproductions, we must regard them as a brave attempt rather than applaud
their achievement.
Japanese posters issued during the War attracted some attention, and
favourable comment has been made from time to time upon their merits; but
it seems probable that the quaint English inscriptions many of them bore,
rather than their intrinsic qualities as posters, beguiled the critics
into taking a genial and generous view of their worth. Such sentences as
"The severe battle at the Kuragaw--German troops are extremely defeated,"
"Our troops attack on Tsingau Retreat German Army and Affrighted," and a
very happy mis-spelling, "The Gritish _Sydney_ forced the German _Emden_
to fight and the sharp action that ensued," are naturally attractive and
amusing. The Japanese, in their colour-printing from wood blocks, invented
the most perfect poster technique in the world for use on a small scale.
The theatrical posters they produced in the eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries could not be surpassed. They contain in miniature all
the qualities we most value in this branch of art, and are at the present
day as fresh and enthralling as if they referred to matters of
contemporary interest. The Japanese have proved themselves a wonderfully
adaptable race: they have utilised our modern engines of war with an
amazing application, and avoided errors, not always obvious, into which
other nations have fallen. But while this has its admirable side in the
mechanical things of life, imitation in the processes of art proves
altogether a failure. The old Japanese spirit has departed. One is tempted
to think that the Japanese understanding of their native art is on the
wane. For their posters very little can be said. The curse of European
influence is apparent in the modern cheap lithographs, crude in colour and
design, which they have produced. We have not been fortunate in finding
one that would worthily serve the purpose of an illustration.
Of the British Colonies, Australia, Canada, and South Africa produced
posters of quite a high standard. The eminence attained by the artists of
the _Sydney Bulletin_ led one to expect some notable examples from New
South Wales; but that province, noble as its achievements were through the
fighting qualities of its sons, contributed little to poster art. The
Canadian poster reproduced in illustration 74, simple in idea and design,
with its fitting legend, shows what promise there is, and indeed
attainment, among the Western children of our race. A poster from India
(illustration No. 72) is interesting, since it makes an appeal to the
Marathas in their own tongue, and in what we are given to understand is
tolerably good native verse. The designer, however, is an Englishman
resident in India.
A few Russian posters made their appearance previous to the Revolution in
that unhappy country. Others have occasionally been issued since, though
we have seen none of any outstanding merit. We reproduce, in illustration
No. 77, a poster which, when exhibited, was described as a "Bolshevist
cartoon"; but there seems more reason to regard it as an example of German
propaganda in Russia, of the period following the so-called Peace of
Brest-Litovsk. Europe, a sad and worn woman, stands with a youth before an
idol which bears the name "Anglia"; below is the inscription, in Russian
characters: "How much longer shall we sacrifice our sons to this accursed
idol?" It is at best a poor thing, and, if German, most carefully designed
to bear the impress of a Russian product.
A series of six eminently successful posters was issued as an appeal to
the Czecho-Slovak people in the United States. For consistent merit, alike
in design, colour, and general conception, they take a high place among
the posters of the War. The artist, V. Preissig, is a Bohemian living in
America, who did the work for the sake of recruiting his fellow-countrymen
there. Perhaps the best of them is that shown in our coloured
illustration, No. 76, "Czecho-Slovaks! Join our free colours!" with its
flags of the four Bohemian States as its main feature, carried by marching
men whose heads come in dark silhouette along the bottom of the design.
The poster is admirably planned, and the lettering on this and the whole
series is simple and distinguished.
Many of us in England recall with amusement the various spy stories which
went the rounds among otherwise perfectly reliable people in the early
days of the War. We all seemed for a time to have an intimate friend or
relation whose nursery governess, butler, or confidential clerk had been
discovered in a wanton act of espionage. It was on the most unimpeachable
authority. Happily it was left for Brazil to embody its attack of this
spy-fever in the form of a poster. "Keep your eyes open and your mouth
shut," runs its legend. The poster shows representations of the different
disguises under which spies are probably concealing themselves--as
nursemaids, schoolboys, tramps, and so on--and warns the public to avoid
them. Life in Brazil would doubtless be exciting for an innocent stranger
whilst the mania lasted.
Holland, living in dangerous proximity to our principal enemy, sought
generally to avoid material of an inflammatory nature in her posters. Very
few of them are notable. We illustrate in colour, on Plate 73, the poster
of an exhibition at Tilburg of the "Fraternelle Belge," one of the most
satisfactory examples of this class produced in the country. Such
institutions as this and the Dutch Anti-War Society are typical sources of
inspiration for their posters during the War. But a word must be said of
the one exception, the Dutch artist whose force of character and
definiteness of aim made him, though a neutral, a protagonist in the cause
for which our country's blood was being shed. Louis Raemaekers, cartoonist
of the Amsterdam _Telegraaf_, fearless knight-errant for the sake of
humanity, who toiled with a pencil of flame against the outragers and
oppressors of prostrate Belgium, was worth an invincible battalion to the
Allies. His posters were few, and not usually issued in Holland. It is by
his cartoons that he will be remembered, a great universal figure, with an
irresistible passion for freedom which found full expression in his
numberless masterly drawings.
INDEX TO ARTISTS' NAMES
NOTE.--_The heavy black numerals indicate pictures in the book; the_
number of the picture _is given in this case._
Adler, Jules, =32=
Arpellus, A. K., 27, =58=
Babcock, --, =80=
Bancroft, --, 35
Barchi, --, 38
Beardsley, Aubrey, 7, 15, 28
"Beggarstaff Brothers," 15
Biro, --, 27, =57=, =61=
Bonnard, Pierre, 16
Bradley, Will H., 28, 29
Brangwyn, Frank, 3, 9, 10, 13, 14, 19, 20, 31, 34, =5=, =7=, =19=
Brown, T. G., =4=
Burns, Cecil L., =72=
Caffyn, --, 11
Capon, G., =26=
Cheret, Jules, 15, 16, 28
Christy, H. C., 34
Clausen, George, 11, =10=
Codognato, Plinio, 37
Crane, Walter, 15
Danko, --, =50=
Dyson, Will, 37
Engelhard, F. K., 23, 26, =43=, =56=
Erdt, H. R., =39=
Erler, --, 23, =37=
Faivre, Jules Abel, 17, 18, 19, 24, =23=, =30=
Faragogez, --, =60=
Fouqueray, D. Charles, 19, =22=, =25=
Franke, --, =51=
Galantara, Gabriele, 37
Gipkins, --, =78=
Gould, J. J., 29
Grasset, Eugene, 16
Guillaume, --, 16
Gulbransson, Olaf, =46=
Hansi, --, 20
Hassall, John, =13=, =14=
Hatt, Doris, 11
Jackson, F. Ernest, 11, =3=
Jonas, L., 31, =68=
Krafter, Roland, 27, =55=
Kuerthy, --, 27, =59=, =62=
Leete, Alfred, 9
Lehmann, Otto, =35=
Lenz, M., =45=
Leonard, Otto, 23, 26, =38=
Leroux, Auguste, =33=
Lipscombe, Guy, 11
Mauzan, --, 28
Morgan, --, 35, =70=
Mucha, Alphonse, 15, 16
Nash, Paul, =16=
Neumon, Maurice, 18, =29=
Nicholson, W., 7
O. A., =73=
Offner, Alfred, =79=
Oppenheim, Louis, 9, 25
Oppo, --, 37, 38
Orpen, Sir W., =17=
Parrish, Maxfield, 29
Partridge, Bernard, 11, =2=, =12=, =15=
Paul, Gerd, =44=
Paus, --, 34
Penfield, Edward, 28, 29
Pennell, Joseph, 31, 32, 33, 35, 39, =67=
Plontke, P., =34=, =52=
Pogliaghi, Ludovico, 37
Polte, Oswald, =40=
Poulbot, --, 17, 18, 19, 24, =20=, =76=
Preissig, V., 26, 42, =76=
Pryde, --, 7
Pryse, G. Spencer, 3, 10, 13, 31, =8=, =9=
Puchinger, Erwin, 27, =36=
Raemaekers, Louis, 23, 31, 37, 38, 43, =71=, =75=
Raleigh, --, 33, 34, 35, =63=
Raven-Hill, L., =11=
Roll, Auguste, 19, 24, =21=
S. A., =41=
Sachetti, E., 37
Sem, --, =27=
Sims, Charles, 11
Steinlen, Theophile Alexandre, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 24, 28, 29, 31, =28=
Toulouse-Lautrec, H. de, 16
Treidler, Adolph, 29, 33, 35, =66=
Ventura, --, 37
West, J. Walter, 11, =6=
Whistler, J. A. McNeill, 12
Whitehead, Walter, 33
Wildhack, Robert J., 29
Wilkinson, Norman, =18=
Willette, Adolphe, 16, 17, 18, 19, 24, =31=
Wohlfeld, --, 26, _Frontispiece_
Young, Ellsworth, 33, 35, =65=
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY BILLING AND SONS, LTD., GUILDFORD
REPRODUCTIONS OF POSTERS
GROUPED UNDER THE COUNTRIES OF ISSUE
2.
BERNARD PARTRIDGE.
"TAKE UP THE SWORD OF JUSTICE."
Issued by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee: No. 106 of their
posters.
[Illustration: 2]
3.
F. ERNEST JACKSON.
"SONG TO THE EVENING STAR."
This poster was one of a group of four which were sent out by the
Underground Electric Railways Company of London for use in dug-outs, etc.,
in France and other places abroad, Christmas, 1916. The drawing was the
gift of the artist.
[Illustration: 3]
4.
T. GREGORY BROWN.
"THEIR HOME, BELGIUM, 1918."
British War Loan poster.
[Illustration: 4]
5.
FRANK BRANGWYN, R. A.
"BRITAIN'S CALL TO ARMS."
Recruiting poster, published by the Underground Electric Railways Company
of London, 1914. The stone upon which Mr. Brangwyn drew this
lithograph--the first great poster of the War--was subsequently presented
to the Victoria and Albert Museum.
[Illustration: 5]
6.
J. WALTER WEST.
"HARVEST-TIME, 1916: WOMEN'S WORK ON THE LAND."
Issued by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London.
[Illustration: 6]
7.
FRANK BRANGWYN, R.A.
Poster for the French Army Orphanage.
"To ensure that the little orphans shall have a home and motherly care,
education in the country, a career suited to each child, and the religion
of their fathers."
[Illustration: 7]
8.
GERALD SPENCER PRYSE.
"THE ONLY ROAD FOR AN ENGLISHMAN. THROUGH DARKNESS TO LIGHT; THROUGH
FIGHTING TO TRIUMPH."
Published by the Underground Railways Company of London, Ltd., 1914.
9.
GERALD SPENCER PRYSE.
"BELGIUM REFUGEES IN ENGLAND."
Poster of the Belgian Red Cross Fund in London, 1915.
[Illustration: 8]
[Illustration: 9]
10.
GEORGE CLAUSEN, R.A.
"MINE BE A COT BESIDE THE HILL."
This poster was one of a group of four which were sent out by the
Underground Electric Railways Company of London, for use in dug-outs,
huts, etc., in France and other places abroad, Christmas, 1916. The
drawing was the gift of the artist.
11.
L. RAVEN-HILL.
"THE WATCHERS OF THE SEAS."
Recruiting poster for the British Navy, 1915.
[Illustration: 10]
[Illustration: 11]
12.
BERNARD PARTRIDGE.
1389-1916.
"KOSSOVO DAY IS THE SERBIAN NATIONAL DAY."
Poster of a British "Flag Day." 25th June, 1916.
13.
JOHN HASSALL.
Poster of the Belgian Canal Boat Fund.
14.
JOHN HASSALL.
"MUSIC IN WAR-TIME."
Grand Patriotic Concert, Albert Hall.
Poster of the Professional Classes War Relief Council.
15.
BERNARD PARTRIDGE.
"HAVEN."
Poster of the British Women's Hospital Fund, appealing for subscriptions
toward the "Star and Garter" home for men disabled by the War.
[Illustration: 12]
[Illustration: 13]
[Illustration: 14]
[Illustration: 15]
16.
PAUL NASH.
Poster of an Exhibition of War Paintings and Drawings by Paul Nash at the
Leicester Galleries, London, May, 1916.
17.
SIR WILLIAM ORPEN, R.A.
Poster of an Exhibition of War Paintings and Drawings executed by Major
William Orpen on the Western Front, at Agnew's Galleries, London, 1918.
18.
NORMAN WILKINSON.
"THE DARDANELLES."
War Sketches in Gallipoli.
Poster of an Exhibition at the Fine Art Society, London, 1915.
19.
FRANK BRANGWYN, R.A.
"AT NEUVE CHAPELLE."
"YOUR FRIENDS NEED YOU. BE A MAN."
British Recruiting Poster.
[Illustration: 16]
[Illustration: 17]
[Illustration: 18]
[Illustration: 19]
20.
POULBOT.
"POUR QUE PAPA VIENNE EN PERMISSION, S'IL VOUS PLAIT."
(So that papa may come on leave, if you please.)
Poster of the French "Flag Days" in Paris, 25th and 26th December, 1915.
[Illustration: 20]
21.
AUGUSTE ROLL.
"POUR LES BLESSES DE LA TUBERCULOSE."
(For those wounded by tuberculosis.)
Poster of the National Day for the Benefit of ex-Soldiers suffering from
Tuberculosis. Paris, 1916.
[Illustration: 21]
22.
D. CHARLES FOUQUERAY.
"LE CARDINAL MERCIER PROTEGE LA BELGIQUE."
(Cardinal Mercier protects Belgium.)
Poster published in Paris, 1916.
[Illustration: 22]
23.
JULES ABLE FAIVRE.
"ON LES AURA!" (We shall get them!) Subscribe.
Poster of the Second National Defence Loan.
[Illustration: 23]
24.
JULES ABEL FAIVRE.
"SAUVONS-LES!" (Let us save them!)
Poster of the National Day for the benefit of ex-Soldiers suffering from
tuberculosis.
[Illustration: 24]
25.
D. CHARLES FOUQUERAY.
"LA JOURNEE SERBE, 25 JUIN, 1916."
Poster of a French "Flag Day" for the Serbian Relief Fund, on the
Anniversary of the Battle of Kossovo.
[Illustration: 25]
26.
G. CAPON.
"LA FEMME FRANCAISE PENDANT LA GUERRE."
(French Women during the War.)
Poster of the Kinematograph Section of the French Army.
[Illustration: 26]
27.
SEM.
"POUR LE DERNIER QUART D'HEURE ... AIDEZ-MOI!"
(For the last quarter of the hour ... help me!)
Poster of the French War Loan, 1918.
[Illustration: 27]
28.
THEOPHILE ALEXANDRE STEINLEN.
Poster of the French "Flag Days," 25th and 26th December, 1915. Organized
by Parliament.
29.
MAURICE NEUMON.
Poster of the French "Flag Days," 25th and 26th December, 1915. Organized
by Parliament.
[Illustration: 28]
[Illustration: 29]
30.
JULES ABEL FAIVRE.
"POUR OUT YOUR GOLD FOR FRANCE. GOLD FIGHTS FOR VICTORY."
Poster of the French War Loan, 1915.
31.
ADOLPHE WILLETTE.
"BY OURSELVES AT LAST!"
Poster of the French "Flag Days," 25th and 26th December, 1916. Organized
by Parliament.
[Illustration: 30]
[Illustration: 31]
32.
JULES ADLER.
"THEY, TOO, ARE DOING THEIR DUTY."
Poster of the French War Loan, 1915.
33.
AUGUSTE LEROUX.
"SUBSCRIBE FOR FRANCE WHO IS FIGHTING! AND FOR THAT LITTLE ONE WHO GROWS
BIGGER EVERY DAY."
Poster of the third French War Loan.
[Illustration: 32]
[Illustration: 33]
34.
PLONTKE.
"FUeR DIE KRIEGSANLEIHE!"
(For the War Loan.)
German War Loan poster issued in Berlin.
[Illustration: 34]
35.
OTTO LEHMANN.
"STUTZT UNSRE FELDGRAUEN. ZEREISST ENGLANDS MACHT. ZEICHNET
KRIEGSANLEIHE."
(Support our Field Greys. Rend England's might. Subscribe to the War
Loan.)
Issued in Cologne.
[Illustration: 35]
36.
ERWIN PUCHINGER.
"ZEICHNET 5-1/2% DRITTE KRIEGSANLEIHE."
(Subscribe to the 5-1/2% Third War Loan.)
Issued in Vienna.
[Illustration: 36]
37.
ERLER.
"DER 9TE PFEIL. ZEICHNET KRIEGSANLEIHE."
(The ninth arrow. Subscribe to the War Loan.)
German War Loan poster.
[Illustration: 37]
38.
LEONARD.
"DER HAUPTFEIND IS ENGLAND."
"When, still compelled to fight and bleed,
When, suffering deprivation everywhere,
You go without the coal and warmth you need,
With ration-cards and darkness for your share,
With peace-time work no longer to be done,--
Someone guilty there must be--
England, the arch-enemy!
Stand then united, steadfastly!
For Germany's sure cause will thus be won."
[Illustration: 38]
39.
H. R. ERDT.
"SOLL UND HABEN DES KRIEGS-JAHRES 1917."
(Losses and gains of the War year 1917.)
German propaganda poster.
[Illustration: 39]
40.
OSWALD POLTE.
"DEM VATERLANDE!"
"POMMERSCHE JUWELEN UND GOLDANKAUFSWOCHE
30 JUNI-6 JULI."
(For the Fatherland.)
Poster advertising the "Pommeranian sale week for jewels and gold, 30
June-6th July."
Issued in Berlin.
[Illustration: 40]
41.
A. S.
"ZEICHNET FUeNFTE OeSTERREICHISCHE KRIEGSANLEIHE."
(Subscribe to the fifth Austrian War Loan.)
Poster issued in Vienna.
[Illustration: 41]
42.
"SEGITESTEK A DIADALMAS BEKETEZ."
Hungarian War Loan Poster--"Help the Victorious Peace."
Issued in Budapest, 1917.
[Illustration: 42]
43.
F. K. ENGELHARD.
"NEIN! NIEMALS!" (No! Never!)
German poster.
44.
GERD PAUL.
"ES GILT DIE LETZEN SCHLAeGE,
DEN SIEG ZU VOLLENDEN!
ZEICHNET KRIEGSANLEIHE!"
(It takes the last blow to make victory complete. Subscribe to the War
Loan!)
[Illustration: 43]
[Illustration: 44]
45.
M. LENZ.
"ZEICHNET ACHTE KRIEGSANLEIHE."
(Subscribe to the eighth War Loan.)
Austrian poster, issued in Vienna.
46.
OLAF GULBRANSSON.
Poster of the Ludendorff Fund for the Disabled.
Published 1918.
[Illustration: 45]
[Illustration: 46]
47.
"ESPOSIZIONE DE GUERRA, TRIESTE, 1917."
(War Exhibition, Trieste, 1917.)
Austrian poster.
48.
"ZEICHNET VIERTE OeSTERREICHISCHE KRIEGSANLEIHE."
(Subscribe to the fourth Austrian War Loan.)
49.
"OeSTERR-UNGAR. KRIEGSGRAeBER AUSSTELLUNG."
(Austrian-Hungarian War Graves Exhibition.)
Poster of an Exhibition in Berlin.
50.
DANKO.
"BE A VOeROeS HADSEREGBE!"
(For the conquering army!)
Hungarian War Loan poster.
[Illustration: 47]
[Illustration: 48]
[Illustration: 49]
[Illustration: 50]
51.
FRANKE.
"WILLST DU DEN FRIEDEN ERNTEN
MUSST DU SAeEN--DARUM."
(If you would reap peace,
You must sow to that end.)
Poster of the eighth Austrian War Loan.
52.
P. PLONTKE.
"ANNAHMESTELLE UND SAMMELBEUTELAUSGABE: SCHUeLER-SAMMELDIENST DER STADT
MAINZ."
(Collection among girls in the schools of Mainz.)
Poster of the German Women's Hair Collection Committee for Magdeburg.
53.
"KAISER- UND VOLKSDANK FUeR HEER UND FLOTTE."
(Kaiser and people's thanksoffering for Army and Navy.)
Poster for the Frankfort Christmas offering, 1917.
54.
"HELFT! DEN BRAVEN SOLDATEN...."
(Help! for the brave soldiers....)
Poster of the Soldiers' Aid Committee, Berlin.
[Illustration: 51]
[Illustration: 52]
[Illustration: 53]
[Illustration: 54]
55.
ROLAND KRAFTER.
The troops home-coming for Christmas.
Austrian poster.
56.
F. K. ENGELHARD.
"ELEND UND UNTERGANG FOLGEN DER ANARCHIE."
(Misery and destruction follow anarchy.)
German poster of the Revolution, 1918.
57.
BIRO.
Hungarian poster depicting the Russian invasion.
Issued in Budapest.
58.
A. K. ARPELLUS.
"ZEICHNET 7. KRIEGSANLEIHE."
Subscribe to the seventh War Loan.
Austrian poster, issued in Vienna.
[Illustration: 55]
[Illustration: 56]
[Illustration: 57]
[Illustration: 58]
59.
KUeRTHY.
Hungarian War Loan poster.
Issued in Budapest, 1917.
60.
FARAGOGEZ.
Hungarian War Loan poster.
Issued in Budapest.
61.
BIRO.
Hungarian War Loan poster.
Issued in Budapest, 1917.
62.
KUeRTHY.
Hungarian War Loan poster.
Issued in Budapest, 1917.
[Illustration: 59]
[Illustration: 60]
[Illustration: 61]
[Illustration: 62]
63.
RALEIGH.
"MUST CHILDREN DIE AND MOTHER PLEAD IN VAIN? BUY MORE LIBERTY BONDS."
American War Loan poster.
[Illustration: 63]
64.
"BOOKS WANTED FOR OUR MEN IN CAMP AND 'OVER THERE.'"
Poster of the American Association of Libraries for supplying books to the
troops on service.
[Illustration: 64]
65.
ELLSWORTH YOUNG.
"REMEMBER BELGIUM."
"BUY BONDS: FOURTH LIBERTY LOAN."
American poster, 1918.
[Illustration: 65]
66.
ADOLPH TREIDLER.
"FOR EVERY FIGHTER A WOMAN WORKER,
CARE FOR HER THROUGH THE Y.W.C.A."
Poster of the United War Work Campaign, American Y.W.C.A.
[Illustration: 66]
67.
JOSEPH PENNELL.
"THAT LIBERTY SHALL NOT PERISH FROM THE EARTH."
Poster of the fourth American War Loan, 1918.
68.
L. JONAS.
"FOUR YEARS IN THE FIGHT--
THE WOMEN OF FRANCE.
WE OWE THEM HOUSES OF CHEER."
American poster.
[Illustration: 67]
[Illustration: 68]
69.
"AMERICA CALLS.
ENLIST IN THE NAVY."
Recruiting poster for the U.S. Navy, 1917.
70.
MORGAN.
"FEED A FIGHTER."
American Food Economy poster.
71.
LOUIS RAEMAEKERS.
"ENLIST IN THE NAVY."
"AMERICANS! STAND BY UNCLE SAM FOR LIBERTY AGAINST TYRANNY."
--THEODORE ROOSEVELD.
Recruiting poster for the U.S. Navy.
72.
CECIL L. BURNS.
"VICTORY TO THE MARATHAS!"
"Unite, ye men,
And from his strongholds drive the foe.
Nothing but deeds like these can win
A fame that shall endure."
Anglo-Indian recruiting poster. Issued in Bombay, 1915.
[Illustration: 69]
[Illustration: 70]
[Illustration: 71]
[Illustration: 72]
73.
A. O.
"IN BELGIE BY DE ZORG."
(The home of distress in Belgium.)
"BELGIAN ART FOR BELGIAN DISTRESS."
Poster of an Exhibition at Tilburg, Holland, 1917.
La Fraternelle Belge.
[Illustration: 73]
74.
"KEEP ALL CANADIANS BUSY.
BUY 1918 VICTORY BONDS."
Canadian poster.
[Illustration: 74]
75.
LOUIS RAEMAEKERS.
"NEUTRAL AMERICA AND THE HUN."
Poster of an Exhibition of Raemaekers cartoons in Milan.
[Illustration: 75]
76.
V. PREISSIG.
"CZECHOSLOVAKS! JOIN OUR FREE COLOURS."
One of six recruiting posters issued by the Czechoslovak Recruiting
Office, New York, U.S.A., 1918.
Printed at the Wentworth Institute, Boston, U.S.A.
[Illustration: 76]
77.
"EUROPE AND THE IDOL."
"HOW MUCH LONGER SHALL WE SACRIFICE OUR SONS TO THIS ACCURSED IDOL?"
Revolutionary poster in Russia. ? German propaganda. (The inscription on
the idol is "Anglia.")
78.
GIPKENS.
"BRINGT EUREN GOLDSCHMUCK DEN GOLDANKAUFSSTELLEN!"
(Bring your gold ornaments to the gold-purchase depot!)
German poster.
79.
ALFRED OFFNER.
"ZEICHNET 7. KRIEGSANLEIHE."
(Subscribe to the seventh War Loan.)
Austrian poster, issued in Vienna.
80.
BABCOCK.
"JOIN THE NAVY: THE SERVICE FOR FIGHTING MEN."
Recruiting poster for the U.S. Navy.
[Illustration: 77]
[Illustration: 78]
[Illustration: 79]
[Illustration: 80]
Footnotes:
[1] While this is being written, our authorities are again placarding our
walls with indifferent posters showing the advantages of life in the Army
as compared with the "disadvantages" of civil life, and embodying an
undignified appeal to Britons to join the Army for the sake of playing
cricket and football and seeing the world for nothing!
[2] It is worth noting that, after Germany had set a value on Raemaeker's
head, her authorities did not disdain to employ his genius, when it suited
their purpose, borrowing his famous cartoon "The Dance of Death" for
denunciation of Berlin's mad craze for gaiety, with the words "Sein Tanzer
ist Tod."
[3] Joseph Pennell's "Liberty Loan Poster." A textbook for artists and
amateurs, Governments and teachers and printers. 1918.
[4] The Czecho-Slovak posters are referred to in the following chapter.