After the Victory (Au Lendemain de la Victoire)

Imprimerie Kapp|Librairie Hachette and Co.|Anonymous, French, 20th century

ca. 1918 · Color lithograph · Drawings and Prints

Many children lost loved ones to the war and were traumatized by the sounds and sights of combat. Ostensibly celebrating victory, this book, like much wartime propaganda for children, reflects these dark events. The cover shows a group of children—one in a military cap—constructing a small village; behind them, adults work on a real building, its neighbor a ruin. The book’s interior also presents images of rebuilding: each page shows a scene of destruction, but when a flap is raised, it shows the same site restored. Tanks become tractors, making fertile a countryside scarred by trenches and shells. A bombed classroom, abandoned save for a tabby cat, becomes filled with schoolboys in front of a map showing the reclaimed Alsace-Lorraine territory.

Artist

Imprimerie Kapp|Librairie Hachette and Co.|Anonymous, French, 20th century

Date

ca. 1918

Medium

Color lithograph

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Lettys Eliot Hallock, 1985