Description
Georges Goursat, who adopted the pseudoymn SEM, was a well-known French caricaturist of the Belle Epoque. During the war, however, he chose to put aside his amusing portraits of French celebrities to work as a war artist and journalist. His war work characteristically mixed humor with tragedy as in his 1917 book, Un Pkin sur le Front (A Civilian at the Front). His illustrations of French soldiers in Un Pkin undoubtedly served as a model for the infantrymen in this poster. Created late in the war, this poster shows Marshal Ferdinand Foch and two members of his staff observing French troops on the march through the shell-cratered terrain of northern France. Following the German-Russian peace treaty of March 1918, the German Army massed its entire military force on the Western Front for a final and formidable assault on the Allied troops. Throughout the war, the various Allied troops had failed to work together successfully and, in April of 1918, Foch was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allies with a mandate to organize the different national militaries into one powerful army. The depiction of the French advancement as well as the title suggest that this poster was produced during the Hundred Days Offensive (AugustNovember, 1918) which led to Germanys defeat.
Details
- Work Date:
- 1918
- Dimensions:
- 31½ x 47 inches
- Medium:
- color lithograph
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Bartlett H. Hayes, 1985