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 - 7 also.
This is part 8 of a 9-part series on WW1 posters.
Notes on Howard Chandler Christy in Part 1.
Pave the Way to Victory was based on the photograph below:
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Edwin Howland Blashfield (1848-1936) was a leading nineteenth-century American muralist and a well- known lecturer and art writer. He was born in New York City and initially studied engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began his artistic education in Paris in 1867, at the studio of Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat. He studied with Bonnat until 1880, then married and returned to New York in 1881.
The artist’s interest in mythology resulted in a prolific mural painting career that began in the late 1880s. One of his early murals was created for a dome in the Manufacturer’s and Liberal Arts Building at Chicago’s 1893 World Columbian Exposition. Other noted works include the painting of the cupola and dome collar for the main reading room of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress and murals in the Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota State Capitols. Blashfield’s murals adorn numerous churches, banks, libraries and government buildings. He also created the art for the front of the 1896 Two-Dollar Bill. His images glorify Americans - including athletes, Revolutionary War heroes and scientific pioneers - often as toga-wearing ancients.
William Haskell Coffin (1878–1941) was a painter and commercial artist who flourished in the early decades of the twentieth century. His work appeared on the cover of leading magazines in the United States and on posters that the US government commissioned.Coffin was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1878. When he was young, his family moved to Washington, DC, where he attended the Corcoran School of Art. After a brief stint back in Charleston, where he painted portraits of society ladies, he went to France in 1902 to complete his training as an artist.
Notes on Wladyslaw Theodore Benda in Part 4.
Beneker working on a very similar image:
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Notes on Edward Penfield in Part 6.
Joseph Clement Coll (1881-1921) was an Ameican book and newspaper illustrator. He was known for his pen and ink story illustrations that were used to illustrate adventure stories such as Conan Doyle's “Sir Nigel.”
Notes on Harvey Dunn in Part 5.
Notes on Ludwig Hohlwein in Part 1.
Notes on Fritz Earler in Part 6.
Notes on Ernest Hamlin Baker in Part 6.
Notes on Albert Sterner in Part 5.
Notes on Edward Penfield in Part 6.
Notes on Wladyslaw Theodore Benda in Part 4.
Notes on Vojtëch Preissig in Part 3.
For more information see part 1. For earlier examples see parts 1 - 7 also.
This is part 8 of a 9-part series on WW1 posters.
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| 1918 Patriotic League by Howard Chandler Christy ( USA ) colour lithograph 70 x 51 cm |
Notes on Howard Chandler Christy in Part 1.
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| 1918 Pave the way to Victory Buy Victory Bonds ( Canada ) colour lithograph 61 x 92 cm |
Pave the Way to Victory was based on the photograph below:
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| 1918 Peace Derry & Toms by F.H. Warren ( UK ) colour lithograph 151 x 99 cm |
Francis Howlett Warren (1886 London -) was a minor illustrator of boys’ books and story papers in the postWW1 period, but was more famous for his advertising posters, for Derry & Toms Department Store and the London Underground amongst others. He was working as a commercial artist at the time of the 1911 census.
In 1916 during WW1 he enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service, serving as a mechanic on board HMS President II. He was transferred to the RAF in 1918, where he served until February 1918. He was discharged in 1920.
Amongst Warren’s earliest known works for children were illustrations for The Boy’s Own Paper in 1916, and for The Union Jack story paper. He also illustrated hardback books. His main source of income however, was from posters, particularly for London Underground, LNER Railway, and Derry & Toms, as well as public house signs.
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| 1918 December 16th to 23rd Red Cross Christmas Roll Call by Edwin Howland Blashfield ( USA ) colour lithograph 71 x 48 cm |
Edwin Howland Blashfield (1848-1936) was a leading nineteenth-century American muralist and a well- known lecturer and art writer. He was born in New York City and initially studied engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He began his artistic education in Paris in 1867, at the studio of Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat. He studied with Bonnat until 1880, then married and returned to New York in 1881.
The artist’s interest in mythology resulted in a prolific mural painting career that began in the late 1880s. One of his early murals was created for a dome in the Manufacturer’s and Liberal Arts Building at Chicago’s 1893 World Columbian Exposition. Other noted works include the painting of the cupola and dome collar for the main reading room of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress and murals in the Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and South Dakota State Capitols. Blashfield’s murals adorn numerous churches, banks, libraries and government buildings. He also created the art for the front of the 1896 Two-Dollar Bill. His images glorify Americans - including athletes, Revolutionary War heroes and scientific pioneers - often as toga-wearing ancients.
In addition to being an accomplished artist, Edwin Blashfield wrote extensively about his travels in Europe and the Middle East and authored several books on art. He also served as President of the National Academy of Design, the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the Society of American Artists, and was a member of the Society of Mural Painters and other organisations.
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| 1918 Remember! The Flag of Liberty - Support It! Buy U.S. Government Bonds 3rd. Liberty Loan ( USA ) colour lithograph 76 x 51 cm |
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| 1918 Schütz eure Heimat! Tretet bei dem Freikorps Hülsen by Julius E.F. Gipkens ( Germany ) colour lithograph 71 x 95 cm |
Julius E. F. Gipkens (1883 – 1968) was a German painter, illustrator and graphic designer. Gipkens was self-taught and found inspiration in Lucian Bernhard's work. Gipkens moved to Berlin and started his career in art. He created posters for Germany during WW1. After the war, he created illustrations for advertising and design firms, and newspapers. He emigrated to the United States in 1933. He died in New York City. His work is held in the collections of the Library of Congress, Washington DC, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
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| 1918 Share in the Victory Buy War Savings Stamps by Haskell Coffin ( USA ) colour lithograph 77 x 51 cm |
William Haskell Coffin (1878–1941) was a painter and commercial artist who flourished in the early decades of the twentieth century. His work appeared on the cover of leading magazines in the United States and on posters that the US government commissioned.Coffin was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1878. When he was young, his family moved to Washington, DC, where he attended the Corcoran School of Art. After a brief stint back in Charleston, where he painted portraits of society ladies, he went to France in 1902 to complete his training as an artist.
Coffin specialised in images of women, which were reproduced on the covers of popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post. The American Magazine, Redbook, McCall’s. Leslie’s Illustrated, and the Pictorial Review. He was one of the most highly paid illustrators of his era. Coffin was married twice. His second wife was actress Frances Starr - they eventually divorced. Coffin was being treated for depression in an institution in St. Petersburg, Florida when he leapt from an upper-story window and died in 1941.
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| 1918 Souscrivez a l'Emprunt de la Liberation! by Simay ( France ) Colour lithograph 112 x 80 cm |
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| 1918 Souscrivez à l'Emprunt de la Libération by Henri Royer ( France ) colour lithograph 80 x 60 cm |
Henri Paul Royer (1869–1938) was a French painter, remembered especially for his genre works from Brittany.After attending the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in 1890 he continued his studies at the Académie Julian under Jules Joseph Lefebvre and François Flameng. He exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon, specialising in genre paintings and portraits. As a portraitist, he encountered many famous figures from the aristocracy, politics, diplomacy, science and the arts. As a result, his critics described him as one of Ingres’ disciples.
In 1896, together with his wife, he arrived in Brittany, where he was to spend long periods for the rest of his life, especially in and around Audierne. Unlike other artists, he was above all interested in the people rather than the scenery. In order to become closer to them, he even learnt to speak Breton. His paintings reveal careful attention to their costumes. A devout Catholic, he also painted religious subjects including solitary figures at prayer. Royer taught at the Académie Julian and at the École des Beaux-Arts. Among his many students were Georgina and Lucilio de Albuquerque, Fréderic Fiebig, Jacques Majorelle,Thérèse Geraldy and Émile Louis Picault.
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| 1918 Stand by the Boys in the Trenches Mine More Coal by Walter Whitehead ( USA ) colour lithograph 75 x 51 cm |
Walter Whitehead (1874-) was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1874. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago before joining the Howard Pyle School of Art about 1901. While at Pyle's school, Whitehead helped Pyle by managing the art supplies that Pyle sold to his pupils at cost. His duties included not only stocking and dispensing the art supplies, but balancing the accounts at the end of the month. Whitehead attended the Chadds Ford summer school in 1902. He later returned to Chicago and eventually taught at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.
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| 1918 Stand by the Country's Girlhood The YWCA Acts for You by Wladyslaw Theodore Benda ( USA ) colour lithograph 76 x 51 cm |
Notes on Wladyslaw Theodore Benda in Part 4.
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| 1918 Sure! We'll Finish the Job Victory Liberty Loan by Gerrit Albertus Beneker ( USA ) colour lithograph 96 x 67 cm |
Gerrit Albertus Beneker (1882-1934) was an American painter and illustrator best known for his paintings of industrial scenes and for his poster work in WW1. Beneker was born in 1882 in Grand Rapids, Michiganthe son of Bartel Albertus Beneker, who had immigrated from Serooskerke in the Netherlands. He first studied at the Chicago Art Institute; later he transferred to the Art Students League in New York.
After working as an illustrator in New York, he became a student of Charles Webster Hawthorne in 1912 at the Cape Cod School of Art; although his work brought about frequent moves, he returned to the area in the summers and in 1920 bought a summer house in Truro, Massachusetts.
In July 1918, Beneker was hired, under the title of "Expert Aid, Navy Department", to create posters and illustrations for the war effort.It was in this period that he painted his most familiar work, "Sure We'll Finish the Job", which sold over three million copies.Later he spent four years painting workers of the Hydraulic Pressed Steel Company in Cleveland, Ohio as part of a labour-management relations improvement project;similar projects were carried out at the General Electric plant in Schenectady, New York and at the Rohm and Haas plant in Philadelphia.
Beneker's output was prodigious, with some five hundred works in oil produced over a thirty-year period, exclusive of his many illustrations. The latter appeared in over eighty publications including Scientific American and Harper’s Weekly. He was also noted for his Ivory Soap advertisements. Most of his work consists of portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings of industrial and manual labor, and it is for the last that he is best known.
Beneker's industrial paintings are optimistic and uplift the common labourer. His industrial paintings toured the country, and Beneker was in great demand as a lecturer. He died in 1934 in Truro.Beneker working on a very similar image:
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| 1918 That Liberty Shall Not Perish From The Earth Buy Liberty Bonds Fourth Liberty Loan by Joseph Pennell ( USA ) colour lithograph 104 x 75 cm |
Joseph Pennell (1857-1926) was an American artist and author.Born in Philadelphia, and first studied there, but like his compatriot and friend, James McNeill Whistler, he afterwards went to Europe and made his home in London. Joseph Pennell had many etchings that depicted historic landmarks in the city of Philadelphia. His chief distinction is as an original etcher and lithographer, and notably as an illustrator.
He taught at the Slade School of Art. He won a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle in 1900, and 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
Pennell visited San Francisco in March 1912, where he undertook a series of so-called "municipal subjects". These were exhibited in December 1912 at "the prestigious gallery of Vickery, Atkins & Torrey"Pennell did the poster for the fourth Liberty Loans campaign of 1918. It showed the entrance to New York City’s Harbour under aerial and naval bombardment, with New York in flames and the Statue of Liberty partly destroyed, her head and her torch blown off. He taught at the Art Students League of New York.
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| 1918 The Girl on the Land Serves the Nation's Need apply Y.W.C.A. by Edward Penfield ( USA ) colour lithograph 63 x 76 cm |
Notes on Edward Penfield in Part 6.
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| 1918 The Government asks you to do your Xmas Shopping Early DO IT NOW by Haskell Coffin ( USA ) colour lithograph 76 x 50 cm |
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| 1918 The Harriman National Bank urges Faith, Courage, and Tatience by M. Waddell ( USA ) colour lithograph 68 x 50 cm |
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| 1918 The Tidal Wave July 4, 1918 95 Ships Launched by Joseph Clement Coll ( USA ) colour lithograph 76 x 51 cm |
Coll began his professional career working for the New York American in the late 1890s. He was soon working for magazines such as Collier's, Everybody's and the American Sunday Magazine. Coll's reputation stands mainly on his pen & ink story illustrations.
In contrast to most illustrators who worked in pen & ink, Coll achieved true tonal gradations in his illustrations by using pen strokes to build up a complete range of values. He was influenced by the Spanish pen & ink artist Daniel Vierge. Coll was also a painter and he often did paintings for the cover or frontispiece of books which were reproduced in colour and then pen & inks to illustrate the text. He was considered to be an ideal illustrator for authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle and other adventure writers.His illustrations for books such as Talbot Mundy’s “King of the Khyber Rifles” and Sax Rohmer’s The Insidious Dr. FuManchu were widely reprinted for many years.
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| 1918 There is a Liberty Bond in this House ( USA ) colour lithograph 54 x 36 cm |
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| 1918 They Are Giving All Will You Send Them Wheat? by Harvey Dunn ( USA ) colour lithograph 92 x 143 cm |
Notes on Harvey Dunn in Part 5.
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| 1918 They serve France How can I serve Canada? Buy Victory Bonds ( Canada ) colour lithograph 90 x 61 cm |
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| 1918 They Shall Not Perish American Committee for Relief in the Near East by Douglas Volk ( USA ) colour lithograph |
Douglas Volk (1856-1935) Son of the noted sculptor Leonard Wells Volk (1828-1895), the genre, history, and portrait painter Stephen Arnold Douglas Volk was born in 1856 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. At the age of fourteen he accompanied his parents to Rome and began to attend classes at the Accademia di San Luca; at that time he also received informal guidance from George Inness. In 1873 he went to Paris and, after Leon Bonnat made a disparaging remark about one of his drawings, transferred to the École des Beaux-Arts where he studied under Jean-Leon Gerôme for the next two years. Volk exhibited his first major painting, En Bretagne, at the Salon of 1875, and in the following year he visited America and was one of the youngest exhibitors at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.
Volk continued to study with Gerôme in Paris until 1879, when he permanently returned to America and initiated a lifelong career in art education by accepting a professorship at the Cooper Institute in New York City, where he taught until 1884. He was elected to membership in the Society of American Artists. In 1886 he founded the Minneapolis School of Fine Art, Minnesota (now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design) and served as its director until 1893. During his stay in Minnesota, Volk executed murals in the state capitol at Saint Paul. He was made a member of the national jury of selection for the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition where he also exhibited three paintings, one of which was awarded a medal. Volk moved back to New York and became an instructor at the Art Students' League until 1898.
He was elected associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1898, and was made a full member in the following year. He taught a class in portraiture at Cooper Union from 1906 to 1912, and was an instructor at the National Academy of Design from 1910 to 1917. He was one of eight American artists selected in 1919 by the National Art Committee to paint portraits of distinguished American and Allied leaders for a pictorial record of World War I, a project for which he executed portraits of King Albert of Belgium (who awarded him the Cross of the Order of Leopold II in 1920), Premier Lloyd George (Smithsonian's American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.), and General John J. Pershing (National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.). During the last fifteen years of his life Volk painted a series of posthumous portraits of Abraham Lincoln. Throughout his long career Volk received numerous awards and distinctions, and was a member of many artists' organisations. While living at their summer retreat "Hewnoaks" in Center Lovell, Maine, Volk, and to a greater extent his wife, contributed to the American arts and crafts movement by producing homespun wool rugs of exceptionally high quality. He died in nearby Fryeburg, Maine, in 1935.
Volk continued to study with Gerôme in Paris until 1879, when he permanently returned to America and initiated a lifelong career in art education by accepting a professorship at the Cooper Institute in New York City, where he taught until 1884. He was elected to membership in the Society of American Artists. In 1886 he founded the Minneapolis School of Fine Art, Minnesota (now the Minneapolis College of Art and Design) and served as its director until 1893. During his stay in Minnesota, Volk executed murals in the state capitol at Saint Paul. He was made a member of the national jury of selection for the 1893 Chicago Columbian Exposition where he also exhibited three paintings, one of which was awarded a medal. Volk moved back to New York and became an instructor at the Art Students' League until 1898.
He was elected associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1898, and was made a full member in the following year. He taught a class in portraiture at Cooper Union from 1906 to 1912, and was an instructor at the National Academy of Design from 1910 to 1917. He was one of eight American artists selected in 1919 by the National Art Committee to paint portraits of distinguished American and Allied leaders for a pictorial record of World War I, a project for which he executed portraits of King Albert of Belgium (who awarded him the Cross of the Order of Leopold II in 1920), Premier Lloyd George (Smithsonian's American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.), and General John J. Pershing (National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.). During the last fifteen years of his life Volk painted a series of posthumous portraits of Abraham Lincoln. Throughout his long career Volk received numerous awards and distinctions, and was a member of many artists' organisations. While living at their summer retreat "Hewnoaks" in Center Lovell, Maine, Volk, and to a greater extent his wife, contributed to the American arts and crafts movement by producing homespun wool rugs of exceptionally high quality. He died in nearby Fryeburg, Maine, in 1935.
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| 1918 Tonhalle Ausstellung von Arbeiten der in der Schweiz internierten deutschen Kriegsgefangenen by Ludwig Hohlwein ( Germany ) colour lithograph 124 x 90 cm |
Notes on Ludwig Hohlwein in Part 1.
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| 1918 Und Ihr? Zeichnet Kriegsanleihe by Fritz Earler ( Germany ) colour lithograph 58 x 44 cm |
Notes on Fritz Earler in Part 6.
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| 1918 Union-Bank 8. Kriegsanleihe Durch Sieg Zum Frieden by Thomas Fasche ( Austria ) colour lithograoh 95 x 63 cm |
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| 1918 United Behind the Service Star United War Work Campaign by Ernest Hamlin Baker ( USA ) colour lithograph 102 x 71 cm |
Notes on Ernest Hamlin Baker in Part 6.
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| 1918 Victory Bonds Shorten the War Help to catch Huns ( Canada ) colour lithograph |
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| 1918 Victory Bonds Will Help Stop This Kultur vs. Humanity ( Canada ) colour lithograph 92 x 61 cm |
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| 1918 Was England will! by Egon Tschirch ( Germany ) colour lithograph 98 x 67 cm |
Egon Tschirch (1889 Rostock, Germany – 1946)
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| 1918 We need you by Albert Sterner ( USA ) colour lithograph 101 x 73 cm |
Notes on Albert Sterner in Part 5.
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| 1918 Welcome Home our Gallant Boys Peace. Justice. Liberty ( USA ) colour lithograph 107 x 71 cm |
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| 1918 Will you help the Women of France? SAVE WHEAT by Edward Penfield ( USA ) colour lithograph 29 x 48 cm |
Notes on Edward Penfield in Part 6.
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| 1918 Willst Du den Frieden ernten Musst Du säen by Ernst Ludwig Franke colour lithograph 96 x 63 cm |
Ernst Ludwig Franke (1886 Vienna, Austria – 1948 Vienna, Austria) Poster artist and graphic designer.
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| 1918 You can help American Red Cross by Wladyslaw Theodore Benda ( USA ) colour photomechanical print with silkscreen 77 x 51 cm |
Notes on Wladyslaw Theodore Benda in Part 4.
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| 1918 Yours not to do and die - Yours but to go and Buy Victory Bonds 1918 ( Canada ) colour lithograph 90 x 61 cm |
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| 1918 Za ceskou samostatnost Ceske narodni sdruzeni by Vojtëch Preissig ( Czechoslovakia ) colour lithograph 84 x 62 cm |
Notes on Vojtëch Preissig in Part 3.
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| 1918 Za nasi samostatnost! Hrr na vraha! Za demokracii! by Vojtëch Preissig ( Czechoslovakia ) colour lithograph 91 x 64 cm |
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| 1918 Zeichnet 7. Kriegsanleihe! by Minka Podhajská ( Austria ) colour lithograph 94 x 63 cm |
Minka Podhajská (1881-1963) Czech visual artist.
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| 1918 Zeichnet 8 Kriegsanleihe by Alfred Offner ( Austria ) colour lithograph 95 x 63 cm |
Alfred Offner (1879 – 1947)
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| 1918 Zeichnet 8. Kriegsanleihe ( Austria ) colour lithograph 126 x 95 cm |