Artist: Alfred F. Burke
Condition: A- *
Dimensions: 29.5 x 39.8 in. / 75 x 101 cm.
Circa: 1915
Linen Backed
* See Condition Grading section for further details
There are two 5" very well restored vertical tears at the bottom edge; there is a vertical line stretching the length of the poster, which appears to be a print defect between the "S" and "H" of "SHARE"; this very rare WWI propaganda poster should display beautifully once framed.
A moving and historically significant piece of American WWI-era humanitarian poster art. A allegorical Columbia figure offers bread and fruit to a group of refugees below; a mother and child huddled in the foreground, a young girl reaching upward, with the New York skyline and Statue of Liberty faintly visible on the horizon behind them. The radiating golden light and painterly execution give it a genuinely devotional quality.
The Jewish Relief Campaign raised funds for Jewish civilians devastated by WWI in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Posters from this campaign are rare and carry real historical weight; primary documents of American Jewish philanthropic organizing during one of the most catastrophic periods in modern Jewish history.