Description

This World War I poster, published in Paris in 1915, urges French citizens to deposit their gold coins “for France,” using the slogan “Gold fights for victory." Gold was needed by the French government to purchase wartime supplies from the United States and other countries, hence the appeal for citizens to transform their gold coins into bank deposits. The focal point of the poster, the gold coin embossed with the emblematic and iconic Gallic rooster (le coq gaulois) shown to be crushing a German soldier, epitomizes this idea. The poster is by Abel Faivre (1867–1945), a well-known illustrator and cartoonist who, in a career that stretched from 1895 to 1942, produced a large body of illustrations for such publications as Le Figaro, Le Journal, L’Echo de Paris, and Le Canard sauvage. Faivre created many posters in support of the French war effort. This poster was published by Devambez, a firm of engravers and printers taken over by Édouard Devambez in 1873 and carried on by his son André Devambez. The firm specialized in the fine printing of artworks, but it produced many popular posters during the war.