|
|
|
Title: Help to buy an Aeroplane |
|
Description: The poster Help to Buy an Aeroplane was meant to entice the Great Britain Army War Savings associations to contribute 2,000 pounds toward the purchase of new military aeroplanes. In exchange for their contribution, army personnel could have an aeroplane named after their unit. It has been estimated that war loans covered more than sixty percent of the direct cost of the war. As such, war loan posters were almost certainly the largest category of posters produced between 1914 and 1919. Great Britain’s best designers played on civilian guilt. One cartoonist, the Welsh born Bert Thomas was born in Newport, Monmouthshire in 1883. Thomas was the son of a sculptor and one of seven children. At age 14 Thomas was apprenticed to an engraver in Swansea. Thomas began to sketch for a living and later moved to London to work for an advertising agency. After becoming an art director, Thomas began to draw political cartoons that were featured in the London Opinion. During World War I, Thomas created England’s largest poster, a gigantic cartoon for the war savings campaign. This was Great Britain’s largest poster. The poster was so large that it all but covered the face of the National Gallery. Bert Thomas was known for his contrasting planes of tone and color, which are evident in Help to Buy an Aeroplane. After the war, Thomas continued illustrating and made two colorful cartoon series capturing Cockney life in "Cockney War Stories". After spending his life making political cartoons and illustrations Bert Thomas died September 6 1966 at the age of 83. |
|
|
|