Description
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, French poster artists, such as Jules Chret and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, gained international recognition for their highly decorative, often abstract, avant-garde style. Throughout the war, however, French poster artists chose to ignore modernism in favor of the more conservative style of nineteenth-century French realism. Propaganda posters needed to be understood instantly by large and diverse segments of the population, many of whom had had little exposure to or understanding of contemporary art. The rejection of modernist styles during the war was nearly universal as American, British, German, and French artists, many of whom were trained as illustrators, embraced a more traditional, narrative style. This poster by Lucien Jonas, an official artist for the French Army, is reminiscent of nineteenth-century French history painting with its energetic and realistic portrayal of a French soldier throwing a grenade at the enemy. It celebrates the Allies collaborative efforts in the last year of the war by showing an Italian and British soldier in the trenches with a French comrade. The American doughboys, who finally arrived on French soil in 1918, are sketched in the background. An allegorical symbol of Victory, a common element in French war posters, hovers above the soldiers as a guardian angel.
Details
- Work Date:
- 1918
- Dimensions:
- 47⅜ x 31⅜ inches
- Medium:
- color lithograph
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Bartlett H. Hayes, 1985