L’Emprunt de la Libération (The Liberation Loan)

Jules Abel Faivre was one of the most well known war-poster artists and cartoonists in France. This memorable poster from 1918 advertised France’s Liberation Loan, also called the Fourth National Defense Loan, which sought to raise funds for the war effort. Using a style that prized the art and skill of drawing, Faivre portrayed a robust array of Allied flags bearing down upon a subdued Kaiser Wilhelm II. Born in Lyon, Faivre trained there at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts and in Paris at the École Julian. He is perhaps most well known for his illustrations for Le Rire, L’Assiette au Beurre, and other satirical magazines and the newspaper Le Figaro. Although French artists devised war posters in a number of representational styles, many of them with training at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and other traditional art schools relished a conservative approach in their posters that was rooted in rigorous training in drawing the figure.