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 see part 1. For earlier examples see parts 1 - 3 also.
This is part 4 of a 9-part series on WW1 posters.
Francisque Poulbot (1879- 1946) was a Frech affichiste (literally "poster designer"), draughtsman and illustrator.
Achille Lucien Mauzan (1883– 1952) was born on the French Riviera, but moved to Italy in 1905, known as a decorative illustrator designing during the Art Deco movement, though he also painted and sculpted. After a period of study in the École des Beaux-Arts at Lyon, France, Mauzan divided his life between Milan, Paris and Buenos Aires. Between the years 1920 and 1940, the period between the wars, he used forms and materials under the influence of the avant-garde cubists. He was also an illustrator of posters and postcards.
Notes on Howard Chandler Christy in Part 1.
Josef Pierre Nuyttens (1885-1960) was a Belgian-American artist born in 1885 in Antwerp, Belgium. His most notable works were his illustrations for four books by L. Frank Baum as well as many portraits of notable people. Currently his art is within many permanent collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian Institution.
Notes on Fritz Erler in Part 3.
Erich Gruner (1881-1966) The son of the Leipzig merchant Louis Gruner studied from 1900 to 1905 at the Royal Academy of Graphic Arts and Book Trade in Leipzig and then in Paris, where he attended the École des Beaux-Arts and was a student of Jean-Paul Laurens. He designed the landmark of the Leipziger Messe in 1917, MM for Mustermesse, and a series of postage stamps of the GDR on the theme of the Leipzger Messe (1949-1961).
Notes on Howard Chandler Christy in Part 1.
J. Paul Verrees was a Belgian artist born in 1889.
Notes on Richard Fayerweather Babcock in Part 3.
Arthur Norman Edrop (1884-1973) was a British artist who emigrated to America. He was a painter, illustrator and advertising consultant. He died in Pennsylvania in 1973.
For more information see part 1. For earlier examples see parts 1 - 3 also.
This is part 4 of a 9-part series on WW1 posters.
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| 1917 Demain, il y aura du tabac et des cigarettes by Francisque Poulbot ( France ) two-colour lithograph 50 x 37 cm |
Francisque Poulbot (1879- 1946) was a Frech affichiste (literally "poster designer"), draughtsman and illustrator.
Poulbot, the oldest of seven children, was a gifted draughtsman who shied away from the École des Beaux-Arts. Following 1900, his drawings started to appear in the press. He moved to Montmartre where, in February 1914, he married Léona Ondernard, before leaving for the Front; he was however sent back the following year. During WW1 his patriotic posters and postcards led him to house arrest under the German occupation of France during WW2.
Between 1920 and 1921, Poulbot became involved with the creation of the République de Montmatre together with his friends Adolphe Willette, Jean-Louis Forain and Maurice Neumont. In 1923, he opened a dispensary on Rue Lepic to help needy children of Montmartre
He died in Paris on 16 September 1946 and was buried in Montmartre Cemetery.
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| 1917 Der hias, ein feldgraues Spiel by Christian Bärmann ( Germany ) colour lithograph 119 x 81 cm |
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| 1917 Die beste Sparkasse; Kriegsanleihe! by Louis Oppenheim ( Germany ) colour lithograph 59 x 44 cm |
Louis Oppenheim (1879–1936) was a German graphic artist,painter and type designer.
Born in Coburg, Oppenheim studied in London from 1899 to 1906. He moved to Berlin and started his work as a graphic artist in 1910, signing his work with his initials, "LO" and working for clients such as AES, the Reichsbahn, Persil and Adrema. His posters are considered a significant product of the 'Berlin poster style'. Oppenheim worked for the type foundry Berthold and created a handful of significant and widespread typefaces, all of which share modernist characteristics, such as Lo-Type and Fanfare which are still in wide use today. Also, he designed the first coin of the Weimar Republic in 1919.
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| 1917 don't waste food while others starve! ( USA ) colour lithograph 75 x 51 cm |
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| 1917 E-e-e-Yah-Yip Go over with U.S. Marines by Charles Buckles Falls ( USA ) colour lithograph 71 x 54 cm |
Charles Buckles Falls ( 1874 Fort Wayne, Indiana – 1960 ) was an American artist, most known for his illustrations and writings. He is the author and illustrator of several books, including The ABC Book. He is also known for his World War I posters.
Falls illustrated many different books for various authors, as well as various magazines and posters. During World War I, he was a member of the Society of Illustrators, with whom he produced war propaganda for the Division of Pictorial Publicity. Falls illustrated posters throughout the war that promoted military recruitment as well as book drives to benefit soldiers overseas.
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| 1917 Enlist in the Navy To Arms by Milton Herbert Bancroft ( USA ) colour lithograph 103 x 67 cm |
Milton Herbert Bancroft (1867-947) Born in Newton, Massachusetts, Milton Bancroft became an Impressionist painter of portraits, landscapes, figures, and murals. He was much influenced by his stay at Giverny, France where he adopted the effects of sun-dappled light on figures and landscape that were espoused by Richard Miller, Louis Ritman, Frederick Frieseke, and George Biddle.
He attended Massachusetts Normal Academy School in Boston, and from 1883 to 1886, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. From 1886 to 1892, he taught at Swathmore College and served briefly as Superintendent at the Pennsylvania Academy, after which he travelled to France, where he completed his studies under various French Instructors. On his return to the United States Bancroft earned a reputation for his portrait work in particular. Among his major commissions were ten murals for the Court of Sessions at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.
He attended Massachusetts Normal Academy School in Boston, and from 1883 to 1886, studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. From 1886 to 1892, he taught at Swathmore College and served briefly as Superintendent at the Pennsylvania Academy, after which he travelled to France, where he completed his studies under various French Instructors. On his return to the United States Bancroft earned a reputation for his portrait work in particular. Among his major commissions were ten murals for the Court of Sessions at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco.
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| 1917 Enlist in the Sportsmen's 1000 ( Australia ) |
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| 1917 Farm to Win "Over There" by Adolph Treidler ( USA ) colour lithograph 100 x 72 cm |
Adolph Treidler was an artist known for his illustrations, posters, commercial art, and wartime propaganda posters. His magazine covers and advertisement work appeared in McClure's, Harper's, the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Century, Scribner's, and the Woman's Home Companion.
He created advertisements for the Pierce Arrow automobile and for the French Line. His 1930s advertising work for the Bermuda Board of Trade was instrumental in promoting tourism in Bermuda. He was president of the Artist's Guild from 1936-1937. His wartime propaganda posters in WW1 often portrayed women workers in munitions plants for the United War Work Campaign. He also created wartime propaganda posters in World War II. He was Chairman of the Pictorial Publicity Committee for the Society of Illustrators, and produced at least five posters touting Women Ordnance Workers, otherwise known as “WOW’s." Treidler was a member of the Art Directors’ Club, The Society of Illustrators, Charter Member of the Artists’ Guild, and life member of the Society of Illustrators. He exhibited at the Whitney Museum in New York in 1923 and The Art Institute of Chicago in 1930.
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| Help Stop This Buy W.S.S. & Keep Him Out of America by Adolph Treidler ( USA ) colour lithograph 70 x 52 cm |
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| She's a Wow by Adolph Treidler ( USA ) colour lithograph |
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| 1917 Fate tutti il vostro dovere! Le sottoscrizioni al prestito si ricevono presso il Credito Italiano by Achille Mauzan ( Italy ) colour lithograph 100 x 70 cm |
Achille Lucien Mauzan (1883– 1952) was born on the French Riviera, but moved to Italy in 1905, known as a decorative illustrator designing during the Art Deco movement, though he also painted and sculpted. After a period of study in the École des Beaux-Arts at Lyon, France, Mauzan divided his life between Milan, Paris and Buenos Aires. Between the years 1920 and 1940, the period between the wars, he used forms and materials under the influence of the avant-garde cubists. He was also an illustrator of posters and postcards.
During his career as a poster printer and designer, Mauzan designed over 2,000 posters, using a style marked by humour and brilliant colours for advertisement and events and over 1,000 postcard images. He made several important posters for the Italian film industry in Turin, and then went to work at Ricordi music publishing from 1912 to 1917. Later, from 1919 to 1923 he works in the Magical press (Giovanni Magagnoli). In 1924 in Milan he established, with Morzenti his own publishing house, the Mauzan-Morzenti Agency. In 1926 he travelled to Argentina and sets up the “Affiches Mauzan” (Mauzan Posters) publishing house where many of his greatest works were created and where he worked until 1932. Mauzan is also noted for designing several war posters including an adaptation of the famous Lord Kitchener poster.
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| 1917 Fight or Buy Bonds Third Liberty Loan by Howard Chandler Christy ( USA ) colour lithograph 75 x 51 cm |
Notes on Howard Chandler Christy in Part 1.
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| 1917 Following the Paths of our Fathers in the Ranks of the Polish Army for Motherland and Freedom by Wladyslaw Theodore Benda ( USA ) lithograph 91 x 82 cm |
Wladyslaw Teodor Benda (1873 Poznan, Poland – 1948 Newark, New Jersey) was a Polish painter, illustrator and designer. Benda studied art at Kraków College of Technology and Art in his native Poland and at the School of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. He went to the United States in 1899. He joined the Society of Illusrators in 1907, the Architectural League in 1916, and became a naturalised American in 1911. He was also a member of the National Society of Mural Painters.
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| 1917 Food Will Win The War by Charles Edward Chambers ( USA ) colour lithograph 76 x 51 cm |
Charles Edward Chambers (1883 Ottumwa, Iowa– 1941 New York) was an American illustrator and classical painter. He is best known for his Chesterfield cigarettes advertisements and Steinway & Sons portraits that ran during the early 1900s. Chambers also illustrated stories for writers W. Somerset Maugham and Pearl S. Buck, among others. These appeared in various magazines including, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s, and Redbook.
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| 1917 For Liberty's Sake, Enlist in the Navy ( USA ) colour lithograph 56 x 36 cm |
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| 1917 For Your Children Buy War Savings Certificates and they will live to thank you by Rosina Mantovani Gutti ( UK ) photomechanical print - halftone colour 102 x 127 cm |
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| For Young Australia - Buy Peace Bonds The Peacemaker by Rosina Mantovani Gutti ( Australia ) |
Rosina Mantovani Gutti (1851–1943) was an Italian painter known for painting children. Gutti was born in Rome. Her work The Peacemaker was included in the book “Women Painters of the World.” This became a popular print and was the primary illustration on an Australian poster for WWI War Bonds. The image was also used on a Canadian WWI poster "For Your Children Buy War Savings Certificates and they will live to thank you". A sketch of this group titled "Three infants" is in the collection of the British National Trust.
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| 1917 Forget Me Not Help Save the Belgian Babies by Joseph Pierre Nuyttens ( USA ) colour lithograph 51 x 35 cm |
Josef Pierre Nuyttens (1885-1960) was a Belgian-American artist born in 1885 in Antwerp, Belgium. His most notable works were his illustrations for four books by L. Frank Baum as well as many portraits of notable people. Currently his art is within many permanent collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian Institution.
Nuyttens studied art at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France until 1905. His main skills were in drypoint and etching, but worked in a wide array of mediums and subjects. He later received a bronze medal from the then queen of Belgium, and a knighthood from the Order of Leopold in 1918 for his works during the war.
He emigrated to the United States and became well known for his work illustrating portraits of notable persons of the day. In the 1930s, he became known within the Chicago theatre circuit as a portrait painter of famous performers and as a costume designer.
During his lifetime, his artwork was exhibited at the White House, the Congressional Library, the New York Public Library, the Royal Palace in Brussels and the Illinois State House in Springfield, IL with much of his work exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago. He died on January 9, 1960 in a house fire that destroyed a large amount of his body of work. |
| 1917 Forward America! by Carroll Kelly ( USA ) colour lithograph 57 x 39 cm |
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| 1917 Give or We Perish by Wladyslaw Theodore Benda ( USA ) lithograph 85 x 56 cm |
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| 1917 Go Over the Top with U.S. Marines by John A. Coughlin ( USA ) colour lithograph 71 x 54 cm |
John Albert Coughlin was born January 23, 1885 in Chicago, Illinois. In 1903 he began to study at the Art Institute of Chicago, from which he graduated in 1906. After he completed his training he worked in advertising, which appeared in Chicago publications. In 1912 he moved to New York City, where he opened an art studio at 880 West 181st Street in the Washington Heights section of Upper Manhattan. In 1917 he painted a popular recruitment poster for the U.S. Marine Corps (above). In1918 he reported for draft registration. He was thirty-three years old and was not selected for military service. In 1934 he opened an art studio in College Point, Queens. He died in College Point, Queens, NY, at the age of fifty-eight on April 3, 1943.
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| 1917 Helft uns siegen – zeichnet die Kriegsanleihe! by Fritz Erler ( Germany ) colour lithograph 58 x 44 cm |
Notes on Fritz Erler in Part 3.
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| 1917 Helft, dass wir den Siegeslorbeer erringen. Zeichnet die Kriegsanleihe by Erich Gruner ( Germany ) colour lithograph 100 x 69 cm |
Erich Gruner (1881-1966) The son of the Leipzig merchant Louis Gruner studied from 1900 to 1905 at the Royal Academy of Graphic Arts and Book Trade in Leipzig and then in Paris, where he attended the École des Beaux-Arts and was a student of Jean-Paul Laurens. He designed the landmark of the Leipziger Messe in 1917, MM for Mustermesse, and a series of postage stamps of the GDR on the theme of the Leipzger Messe (1949-1961).
From 1 January 1931 he was head of the newly established Leipzig Arts and Crafts School, where he first introduced Set Design as a subject in Germany . Erich Gruner's graphic oevre encompasses a large number of works in various techniques (etchings, lithographs, woodcuts, linocuts and drawings), mostly thematically summarized in cycles or serial portfolio works. After the wartime destruction and permanent closure of the School of Applied Arts in 1946, he worked until his death as a freelance artist.
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| 1917 Help your Red Cross "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these" by Hubert Chapin ( USA ) colour lithograph 55 x 35 cm |
Hubert Roderick Chapin was born in California on Sept. 5, 1877. While in San Francisco at the turn of the century, Chapin studied at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute. He worked as an art director in Chicago until 1936. He then settled in San Mateo, CA where he remained until his death in August 1954.
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| 1917 I Want You for the Navy by Howard Chandler Christy ( USA ) |
Notes on Howard Chandler Christy in Part 1.
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| 1917 It's worth While! That's Why. Buy War Savings Certificates ( UK ) colour lithograph 73 x 50 cm |
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| 1917 Join the Air Service and Serve in France Do it Now by J. Paul Verrees ( USA ) |
J. Paul Verrees was a Belgian artist born in 1889.
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| 1917 Join the Navy The Service for Fighting Men by Richard Fayerweather Babcock ( USA ) colour lithograph 106 x 72 cm |
Notes on Richard Fayerweather Babcock in Part 3.
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| 1917 Journée de l'armée d'Afrique et des Troupes Coloniales by Charles Fouqueray ( France ) colour lithograph 120 x 80 cm |
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| 1917 Keep 'em Going! ( USA ) colour lithograph 77 x 51 cm |
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| 1917 Keep Him Free Buy War Savings Stamps by Charles Livingston Bull ( USA ) colour lithograph 76 x 51 cm |
Charles Livingston Bull (1874 - 1932) was an American illustrator. Bull studied taxidermy in Rochester. New York and is known for his illustration of wildlife.
Bull's first job at the age of 16 was preparing animals for mounting at the Ward's Museum in Rochester. He later worked as a taxidermist in Washington, D.C specializing in anatomy of birds and animals.During World War I, he designed recruiting posters.
Bull lived for many years near the Bronx Zoo in New York to allow close access to be able to sketch living animals. He made many trip to Central and South America studying wildlife in their natural surrounding. Stories and illustrations for this trip were published in his book, Under the Roof of the Jungle. He made many drawings to help garner public interest in eagles.
Bull was a resident of Oradell, New Jersey and donated several of his works to the Oradell Public Library.
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| 1917-18 Join The Army Air ServiceBe an American Eagle! by Charles Livingston Bull ( USA ) colour lithograph |
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| 1917 Keep the American Flag on the Seas Join the Navy Enlist now-your Country needs You by Frank Vining Smith ( USA ) colour lithograph 56 x 36 cm |
Frank Vining Smith (1879-1967) American artist best known for his marine paintings.
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| 1917 Knights of Columbus by William Balfour Ker ( USA ) colour lithograph 68 x 51 cm |
Notes on William Balfour Ker in Part 3.
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| 1917 Lend the way they Fight Buy Bonds to your Utmost ( USA ) colour lithograph 69 x 99 cm |
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| 1917 Lest they Perish Campaign for $30,000,000 by W.B. King ( USA ) colour lithograph 47 x 32 cm |
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| 1917 Let's End Tt - Quick With Liberty Bonds by Maurice Ingres ( USA ) colour lithograph 103 x 70 cm |
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| 1917 Liberty Sowing the Seeds of Victory by Frank Vincent DuMond ( USA ) colour lithograph 94 x 56 cm |
Frank Vincent DuMond (1865 Rochester, NY – 1951 New York) was one of the most influential teacher-painters in 20th-century America. He was an illustrator and American Impressionist painter of portraits and landscapes, and a prominent art teacher.
From 1884 to 1888, he attended the Art Students League in New York. He moved to Paris to continue his studies. From 1888 / 1889 to 1891 he attended the Académie Julian. His early work was in the Art Nouveau style, then in Paris he was influenced by the Barbizon School, later becoming an Impressionist.
DuMond exhibited at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, and the Saint Louis Exposition. He served as Director of Fine Arts at the Lewis and Cark centennial Exposition in Portland in 1905, and he helped organise the first exhibition at the Portland Art Museum that year. For the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, he prepared two huge murals, 12 feet high by 47 feet long, which now hang in the San Francisco Public Library.
The editor of Harper's, who was also president of the Art Students League, convinced him to take a job teaching at the League. In a teaching career spanning more than fifty years, DuMond taught thousands of artists at the Art Students League.
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| 1917 Look After My Folks by Frank Brangwyn ( USA ) colour lithograph 105 x 71 cm |
Notes on Frank Brangwyn in Part 2.
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| 1917 Make Every Minute Count for Pershing by Adolph Treidler ( USA ) colour lithograph 72 x 56 cm |
Adolph Treidler was an artist known for his illustrations, posters, commercial art, and wartime propaganda posters. His magazine covers and advertisement work appeared in McClure's, Harper's, the Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Century, Scribner's, and the Woman's Home Companion.
He created advertisements for the Pierce Arrow automobile and for the French Line. His 1930s advertising work for the Bermuda Board of Trade was instrumental in promoting tourism in Bermuda. He was president of the Artist's Guild from 1936-1937. His wartime propaganda posters in WW1 often portrayed women workers in munitions plants for the United War Work Campaign. He was Chairman of the Pictorial Publicity Committee for the Society of Illustrators, and produced at least five posters touting Women Ordnance Workers, otherwise known as “WOW’s." Treidler was a member of the Art Directors’ Club, The Society of Illustrators, Charter Member of the Artists’ Guild, and life member of the Society of Illustrators. He exhibited at the Whitney Museum in New York in 1923 and The Art Institute of Chicago in 1930.
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| 1917 Make the World Safe Enlist Wow and go with your friends by Arthur N. Edrop ( USA ) colour lithograph 100 x 68 cm |
Arthur Norman Edrop (1884-1973) was a British artist who emigrated to America. He was a painter, illustrator and advertising consultant. He died in Pennsylvania in 1973.
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| 1917 National Allied Bazaar Mechanics Bldg. Boston December 9 to 20 ( USA ) colour lithograph 106 x 72 cm |
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| 1917 NOT Just Hats Off To The Flag BUT Sleeves Up For It! by Alfred Herbert Palmer ( USA ) colour lithograph 104 x 71 cm Alfred Herbert Palmer was a British artist (1853-1932) |