Sign up for the loan of Freedom.

Description:

The Loan of Freedom
The Motherland and Freedom are in danger.
Give state the money
to fight the enemy.

Подписывайтесь на заем свободы.
Заем Свободы
Родина и Свобода в опасности.
дайте государству деньги
для борьбы с врагом.


Delicate and fragile, the distinctly youthful characters on Alexei Kravchenko's poster, with a soldier holding a rifle and a red flag billowing in the background of swirling clouds, smoking factories, and white churches, form a romantic image of an impassioned call for donations in the name of freedom.

In May 1917, the All-Russian Committee for Public Assistance to Government Loans announced a competition for poster designs for the "Freedom Loan," with Konstantin Korovin as the jury chair and Aristarkh Lentulov as the secretary. Each artist had freedom in choosing their style, but the symbolic images of the homeland remained unchanged: fertile fields and majestic churches.

The purchase of bonds for the 5.5% loan, which the posters called for, was quite active. The funds were needed for the production of weapons, to aid war victims and refugees, to provide portable baths in trenches, and to supply tobacco and books for soldiers.

Alexei Kravchenko, the poster's creator, was a painter and graphic artist. He studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture under V.A. Serov and K.A. Korovin, as well as in Munich at the Halloschi School. Although Kravchenko was inclined toward neoclassicism, his romantic poster aligns with the spirit of the revolutionary era. It is worth noting that neither before nor after World War I did artists working in the poster genre at that time—such as Apollinary and Viktor Vasnetsov, Konstantin Korovin, Boris Kustodiev, Pavel Kuznetsov, Leonid Pasternak, Abram Arkhipov, Mikhail Nesterov, and even Kravchenko himself—ever return to this genre.

Product ID:

10099

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