JEAN CARLU SIGNED EMPRUNT NATIONAL POSTER

This vintage stone lithograph by prominent French graphic designer Jean Carlu promotes Emprunt National, the National Loan program run by the French government to advance economic recovery during peacetime (“La Renaissance Economique Dans La Paix”).  It was published around 1930; the Great Depression in France began about 1931.

The stunning Art Deco illustration shows a large classical figure resembling the powerful Greek Goddess Athena. She is wearing a helmet and holding up a large shield in her left hand.  Her oversized shield protects a small silhouetted factory that is operating (note the smoke from the smokestacks) and a silhouetted farmer who is walking in his fields guiding a plow pulled by an ox. 

Athena was not only the goddess of war but also the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice – the mythical goddess one might invoke in art when promoting nation-building following war.

Jean Carlu (1900–1997) was a French graphic designer and commercial artist who rose to prominence as a poster designer before WWII. His posters for governments, as well as businesses, before, during and after the war have become treasured works of art, as appreciation for his talent and his reputation as an artist continue to grow over time.

Condition: A