Société Française de Secours aux Blessés Militaires
Artist
Lucien Jonas
France, 1880 - 1947
Printer
Imp. Devambez, Paris.
France
Datec. 1918
Dimensions43 1/4 x 30 3/4 in. (109.9 x 78.1 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LineGift of Peter A. Blatz
Object numberPH.76
DescriptionA nurse from the Société Française De Secours/Aux Blessés Militaires (S.B.M.) comforts three generations of a family who have returned to their village, destroyed by war. The red and white of the nurse’s uniform are reflected in the charming white, red-roofed houses of the prewar village (seen at upper left); they contrast with the gray ruins and reinforce a sense of the organization’s key role in building a better future. The S.B.M. was founded in 1864, the first Red Cross Society in France. In 1918, at the end of World War I, it turned its attention to reconstruction and to addressing disease in the wider population. Lucien Jonas was a painter and illustrator who was officially named military painter to the Musée de l’ Armée in Paris in 1915. He traveled around the front lines, ultimately producing numerous drawings, paintings, and illustrations of life in the trenches; he also designed a number of posters, many promoting war bonds. On View
Not on view
