Un Seul Combat Pour Une Seule Patrie
Artist
Knopf
Date1943
Dimensions29 3/4 x 19 1/2 in. (75.6 x 49.5 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LineGift of Peter A. Blatz
Object numberPH.23
DescriptionThis is one of several posters designed by the obscure artist Knopf featuring one of French General Charles de Gaulle’s famous “petites phrases“ (little phrases). On November 11, 1942, as the Germans occupied the southern French zone that had been administered by the collaborationist Vichy government, the general had made a speech at the Royal Albert Hall in London calling for the disparate members of the French Resistance to unite in the fight against Nazism: “Un seul combat pour une seule patrie” (A single fight for a single homeland). The poster was printed by the Star Process Engraving Company in Manchester, England to boost the morale of the Resistance based both in London, where De Gaulle had moved to continue the fight after the German occupation in 1940, and around the world. The uniformed French solider here and the worker, armed with pliers with which he might commit sabotage in the German-run munitions factory in which he works, represent the internal and external sides of the struggle. The arms of the soldier, set in London on the map behind them, and the worker in German-occupied France emblazoned with the Nazi swastika, are entwined across La Manche (the Channel). The soldier points to the word Fraternité; below is the Cross of Lorraine, the symbol of Free France.On View
Not on view
