During World War I, the impact of the poster as a means of communication was greater than at any other time during history. The ability of posters to inspire, inform, and persuade combined with vibrant design trends in many of the participating countries to produce thousands of interesting visual works. As a valuable historical research resource, the posters provide multiple points of view for understanding this global conflict. As artistic works, the posters range in style from graphically vibrant works by well-known designers to anonymous broadsides (predominantly text).
For more information and for earlier examples, see part 1 also.
This is part 2 of a 9-part series on WW1 posters.
![]() |
1915 Bring him Home with the Victory Loan ( Canada )
colour lithograph 91 x 61 cm |
![]() |
1915 Britain needs you at Once ( UK )
colour lithograph 76 x 50 cm |
![]() |
1915 Come along, Boys! Enlist To-day ( UK )
colour lithograph 75 x 50 cm |
![]() |
1915 Come Lad, Slip across and Help ( UK )
colour lithograph 102 x 129 cm |
![]() |
1915 Comité de L'Or du Département du Rhöne pour la Patrie versez votre Or
by Fernand-Jean Barbier ( France )
colour lithograph 120 x 85 cm
Fernand-Jean Barbier was born in Paris. He was largely a painter of portraits, nudes, and landscapes. He exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français between 1924 and 1939, and became a member of the Society. |
![]() |
1915 Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War? ( UK )
colour lithograph 76 x 50 cm |
Britain’s army at the beginning of the First World War was relatively small and professional. There was no conscription of population before 1916, and so recruitment of volunteers in large numbers became a huge challenge. Considerable social pressure was brought to bear on men to volunteer, and those who did not risked vilification as ‘shirkers’ or cowards.![]() |
| 1915 Enlist To-day ( UK ) |
![]() |
1915 Enlist To-day. He's Happy & Satisfied. Are you? ( UK )
colour lithograph 76 x 50 cm |
![]() |
1915 fight for her
by Hal Ross Perrigard ( Canada )
Hal Ross Perrigard (1891-1960) was a Canadian painter, mainly of Canadian landscapes. The poster is based on a famous painting by James McNeil Whistler "Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1," otherwise known as "Whistler's Mother."
|
![]() |
1871 Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 ( Whistler's Mother )
oil on canvas 144 x 162.4 cm
Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
![]() |
1915 For the glory of Ireland Will You Go or Must I? ( Ireland )
chromolithograph 74 x 50 cm |
![]() |
1915 Get a move on old man! by Harry John Weston ( Australia )
colour lithograph 91 x 61 cm |
Harry John Weston was a cartoonist, painter, commercial artist and architect. Weston was a member of many clubs and societies, and associated with many of Australia's now famous cartoonists and illustrators. He is known for drawing the cover of 'the first publication issued under the auspices of the Society of Australian Black and White Artists.'
He exhibited with the Victorian Artists’ Society in 1902-4 and was a member of the Prehistoric Order of Cannibals, a Melbourne Bohemian sketch club of the 1890s that included the Lindsay brothers, the Dyson brothers, Hugh McCrae, Max Meldrum and other young men. He exhibited with the NSW Society of Artists in 1907. He established his own advertising agency in around 1910.
![]() |
1915 If You Want To Fight! Join The Marines by Howard Chandler Christy ( USA )
colour photomechanical print |
Notes on Howard Chandler Christy in Part 1.
![]() |
1915 It's Our Flag. Fight for it. Work for it by Guy Lipscombe ( UK )
colour lithograph 151 x 98 cm |
Guy Lipscombe (1893-1937) was born in or around London in 1893. He was a painter of genre and motoring scenes and was one of the earliest artists specialising in automotive subject matter. In 1903, Lipscombe took charge of the art department of the popular British magazine, “The Motor.” Ultimately, he became a knowned illustrator and his works now hang in every important Automobile Museum in the world.
His landscapes were painted in association with the St. Ives school of painters and Lipscombe’s observation of the famous Cornish light and passion for ‘plein air’ painting was seen to free his palette.
Lipscombe began to exhibit in London from 1908 to 1937 at The Royal Academy, The Royal Institute of Oil Painters, The Abbey Gallery, The Dudley Gallery and The London Salon. He also exhibited at The Walker Gallery in Liverpool.
![]() |
1915 Journée de Paris. 14 Juillet 1915 by G. Picard ( France )
two-colour lithograph 120 x 80 cm |
Georges Picard (1857-1946) was born in Paris, He studied under Gerome and was also the protégé of the artist Albert Besnard. He exhibited at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and was also its Treasurer. He was commissioned to paint murals for the Casino at Monte Carlo, the French Emassy in Vienna, the Petit-Palais in Paris, and the Hotel de Ville in Paris.The latter commission was in 1891 for the considerable sum of 120,000 Francs. He was commissioned to decorate the Lobau Gallery, which directly links the two entrance rooms. This most important work was carried out between 1892 – 1898, where he painted the cupolas, pendants, and the vertical panels for the Salon.
![]() |
1915 La journée du Poilu by Lucien Jonas ( France )
colour lithograph 122 x 80 cm |
Notes on Lucien Jonas in Part 1.
![]() |
1915 Learn to adjust your Respirator Correct and Quick
by W.G. Thayer ( UK )
colour lithograph 74 x 51 cm |
![]() |
1915 Lend your Five Shillings to your Country and Crush the Germans ( UK )
colour lithograph 76 x 51 cm |
![]() |
1915 Line up, Boys! Enlist To-day ( UK )
colour lithograph 75 x 50 cm |
![]() |
1915 National Fund for the Welsh troops.
Grand Matinee by Sir Frank Brangwyn ( UK )
colour lithograph 77 x 51 cm |
Sir Frank William Brangwyn (1867 – 1956) was an Anglo-Welsh artist, painter, water colourist, engraver, illustrator and progressive designer. As well as paintings and drawings, he produced designs for stained glass, furniture, ceramics, table glassware, buildings and interiors, was a lithographer and woodcutter and was a book illustrator. It has been estimated that during his lifetime he produced over 12,000 works.
Brangwyn received some artistic training, probably from his father, and later from Arthur Heygate Mackmurdo and in the workshops of William Morris, but he was largely an autodidact without a formal artistic education. When, at the age of seventeen, one of his paintings was accepted at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, he was strengthened in his conviction to become an artist. Initially he painted traditional subjects about the sea and life on the seas. His 1890 canvas, Funeral At Sea won a medal of the third class at the 1891 Paris Salon. The murals for which Brangwyn was famous, and during his lifetime he was very famous indeed, were brightly coloured and crowded with details of plants and animals, although they became flatter and less flamboyant later in his life.
![]() |
1915 Orphelinat des Armée ( France )
lithograph 153 x 101 cm |
![]() |
1915 Orphelinat des Armees by Sir Frank Brangwyn ( UK for France )
lithograph 153 x 101 cm |
![]() |
1915 Pour La France Versez Votre Or by Abel Faivre ( France )
colour lithograph 118 x 80 cm |
Jules Abel Faivre was born in Lyon, France. He attended the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon for three years. He then attended the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and the Académie Julian in Paris. He was a member of the Société des Artistes Français. He lived in La Croix-Valmer. He drew comics for Le Rire, L’Écho de Paris, and Le Figaro.
![]() |
1915 Put Your Back into it and Help to give the Final Push.
Sign the Enlistment Form ( UK )
colour lithograph 76 x 51 cm |
![]() |
1915 Rally Round the Flag
"We must have more men" ( UK )
colour lithograph 91 x 58 cm |
![]() |
1915 'Send more Men'
Won't You answer the Call ( Canada )
colour lithograph |
![]() |
1915 Step into your Place ( UK )
colour lithograph 50 x 76 cm |
![]() |
| 1915 Take up the Sword of Justice by Bernard Partridge ( UK ) colour lithograph 102 x 63 cm |
Sir John Bernard Partridge (1861 – 1945) was an English illustrator. Born in London, he was the son of Professor Richard Partridge F.R.S., president of the Royal College of Surgeons, and nephew of John Partridge, portrait-painter extraordinary to Queen Victoria. For some years he was well known as an actor under the name of Bernard Gould
Partridge was educated at Stonyhurst College,and after matriculating at the University of London entered the office of Dunn & Hansom, architects.He then joined for a couple of years a firm of stained-glass designers (Lavers, Barraud and Westlake), learning drapery and ornament; and then studied and executed church ornament under Philip Westlake,1880–1884. He began illustration for the press and practised watercolour painting, but his chief success was derived from book illustration.
In 1891 he joined the staff of “Punch” and, in 1910, became its chief cartoonist, replacing Edward Linley Sambourne. During his time at “Punch,” Partridge published several cartoons showing his support for the Suffragist movement. He was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and of The Pastel Society. In 1915, he designed WW1 posters, some of which are now held at the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, including “Take up the Sword of Justice.”
![]() |
1915 The Empire needs Men! by Arthur Wardle ( UK )
colour lithograph 75 x 50 cm |
Arthur Wardle (1860–1949) was an English painter. Born in London, aged just sixteen Wardle had a piece displayed at the Royal Academy. Wardle was prolific; until 1936 he exhibited more than 100 works at the Royal Academy,as well as the Society of British Artists at Suffolk Street. He painted a variety of animal subjects with equal skill but his work may be divided into two categories, domestic and exotic; animals from overseas including leopards, polar bears and tigers were painted from sketches that he made at London Zoo. He is considered equally proficient in oils, watercolours and pastels and was elected to the Pastel Society in 1911 and became a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1922. In 1931 he held his first one-man exhibition at the Fine Art Society and in 1935 the Vicar’s Gallery put on an exhibition of his work. He also exhibited in Paris. His career was highly successful and his works continue to be sought after and widely reproduced on postcards, calendars and boxes of chocolates. He remains one of the widely known dog painters of the 19th and 20th Centuries.![]() |
1915 The Nation is fighting for its Life.
All Men should Enrol for National Service ( UK )
colour lithograph 75 x 51 cm |
![]() |
1915 The Navy wants Men ( Canada )
colour lithograph 107 x 71 cm |
![]() |
1915 There is still a Place in the Line for You. Will you fill it? ( UK )
colour lithograph 75 x 51 cm |
![]() |
1915 There's Room for You. Enlist To-day by W.A. Fry ( UK )
colour lithograph 76 x 50 cm |
![]() |
1915 We're both needed to serve the Guns!
Fill up the ranks! Pile up the munitions! ( UK )
colour lithograph 50 x 74 cm |
![]() |
1915 Why Bother about the Germans invading the Country?
by The Brothers Warbis ( UK )
colour lithograph 101 x 63 cm |
![]() |
1915 Will you make a Fourth? ( UK )
chromolithograph 76 x 50 cm |
![]() |
1915 Women of Britain say "Go!"
colour lithograph 75 x 50 cm |
![]() |
1915 Your Country's Call.
Isn't this Worth Fighting for? Enlist now ( UK )
colour lithograph 76 x 50 cm |
![]() |
1915-18 Banca Italiana di Sconto by Giuseppi Russo ( Italy )
colour lithograph 140 x 99 cm |
