Crédit Lyonnais - Souscrivez au 4e Emprunt National 1918

This powerful original poster was created by Abel Faivre in 1918 for Crédit Lyonnais, encouraging the French public to subscribe to the Fourth National Loan. Such campaigns called upon private citizens to support the country financially during the final year of the First World War.

Faivre depicts a French soldier wearing an Adrian helmet confronting a monumental black eagle, the traditional symbol of Imperial Germany. The soldier advances with his sword while the French tricolour billows dramatically around him, transforming the struggle into an easily understood allegory of national resistance and anticipated victory.

The horizontal composition is exceptionally theatrical, with the muscular figure and the eagle’s spread wings filling almost the entire image. Muted earth tones are enlivened by the red, white and blue of the flag, while the inscriptions “Crédit Lyonnais” and “Souscrivez au 4e Emprunt National” frame the scene with monumental authority.

Jules-Abel Faivre was a prominent French painter, illustrator and caricaturist who produced several of the most memorable propaganda images of the First World War. His expressive draughtsmanship and talent for dramatic symbolism made his posters particularly effective instruments of public mobilisation.

Combining striking graphic design with significant historical context, this original poster is an important document of French wartime propaganda and finance. It will appeal to collectors of First World War material, political posters and early twentieth-century French graphic art.

Original poster

Economy - War 14-18

Devambez Paris

Good condition, dirt