Emprunt National 1918/Société Générale
Artist
D. B. Chavannaz
France
Printer
Imp. Crété, Paris
France
Date1918
Dimensions30 1/2 x 46 1/4 in. (77.5 x 117.5 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LineGift of Peter A. Blatz
Object numberPH.156
DescriptionArtist D.B. Chavannaz designed war loan posters for various French banks during World War I. This poster was issued by the Société Générale bank to promote the fourth Defense Loan in 1918. During this final year of the war, banks intensified their poster campaigns as they sought to persuade the population to contribute to the country’s decisive victory through the purchase of war bonds (typically issued through banks). Here, the artist presents a harvest scene with a peasant woman and child in the foreground and a shadowy battalion of soldiers in the background guided into battle across the evening sky by Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic. With the slogan “To Allow Us to Make Whole the Sweet Land of France,” the composition evokes the innocence and beauty of the French countryside before the destruction of war (much of which was fought on French soil). It suggests that the purchase of war bonds will hasten the victory that will ultimately allow a return to this lost Eden. On View
Not on view
