Created by artist Jonas Lie (1880 - 1940) in 1918 and issued by the Publications Section of the Emergency Fleet Corporation in Philadelphia, PA, this poster was issued in support of the effort to rapidly increase the construction of ships as war was raging in Europe.
This is an original poster and it has been linen-backed for conservation. It will be shipped unframed, ready to be framed.
Interestingly, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller had the smaller version of this poster in her collection and gave it to the Museum of Modern Art. And it's in the museum of the Rhode Island School of Design, one of the nation's premiere design programs, as well as the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, among others.
MoMA notes that it is Gouache-lithograph and was printed by W.F. Powers Co. Litho. of New York.
Information on the history behind the image is immediately below, and below that, a bio of the artist.
Sheet size: 41” x 57”
Image size: 39” x 55”
Shipping: $55. Please allow two weeks for shipping.
From Wikipedia:
The history behind the image
"The Emergency Fleet Corporation (EFC) was established by the United States Shipping Board, sometimes referred to as the War Shipping Board, on 16 April 1917[1] pursuant to the Shipping Act (39 Stat. 729) to acquire, maintain, and operate merchant ships to meet national defense, foreign and domestic commerce during World War I.
The Shipping Board had been established while the United States was at peace, with the intent to restore the nation's Merchant Marine. That changed with war. In the words of Edward N. Hurley, Chairman of the Board:
"When the United States declared war against Germany the whole purpose and policy of the Shipping Board and the Fleet Corporation suffered a radical change overnight. From a body established to restore the American Merchant Marine to its old glory, the Shipping Board was transformed into a military agency to bridge the ocean with ships and to maintain the line of communication between America and Europe. Conceived as an instrumentality of peace, the Board became an instrumentality of war. Unlike other military agencies—the Army and Navy—it began with nothing—no ships, no officers, no crews, no organizations.
"Ten days after the declaration of war the Emergency Fleet Corporation was established in response to those wartime requirements.
"The EFC was renamed the U.S. Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corporation in February 1927, then abolished entirely in October 1936. Its functions were transferred to the United States Maritime Commission."
The artist, Jonas Lie
From Artvee:
"Jonas Lie was a Norwegian-born American painter and teacher.
"Lie is best known for his Expressionist paintings of the New England coastline and New York City. He documented construction of the Panama Canal with thirty canvases, and represented the United States in the 1928 Summer Olympics art competition.
"Lie was born in Moss, in Østfold county, Norway. His father Sverre Lie (1841–92) was a Norwegian civil engineer and his mother Helen Augusta Steele (1853–1906) was an American from Hartford, Connecticut. He was named for his father's cousin (and brother-in-law), the famous Norwegian author Jonas Lie, who had married his father's sister Thomasine.
"Following his father's death in 1892, 12-year-old Lie was sent to live with Thomasine and Jonas Lie in Paris. His aunt and uncle's home was a meeting place for famous artists such as Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Edvard Grieg, and Georg Brandes. He had already received drawing instruction from Christian Skredsvig in Norway, and Lie attended a small private art school in Paris. The following year he traveled to the United States, where he joined his mother and sisters in New York City. From 1897–1906, he trained at the Art Students League of New York.
"Between 1901 and the memorial exhibition in 1940 his work was shown all over America. In 1905 Lie exhibited 34 pictures in the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn Museum of Art. Between 1905 and 1938 Lie had 57 one-man shows, each including from 12 to 45 paintings. He participated in important annual and biennial exhibitions at the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington as well as most of the world fairs.
"Lie traveled to Panama in 1913, to paint scenes of the construction of the Panama Canal. His thirty resulting canvases brought him wide acclaim. In 1929, twelve of these were donated to United States Military Academy in memory General George W. Goethals, the West Point graduate who had been the canal's chief engineer.
In 1932, King Haakon conferred on Lie Norway's highest civilian honor, making him a Knight of the Order of St. Olav.
"Lie was a member of various art organizations including the Salmagundi Club and was active in the National Academy of Design. Among Lie's students was the New Hope School painter John Fulton Folinsbee.
"Jonas Lie often depicted the sea, channels, and ships with dramatic perspective and powerful use of color. He became known for colorful impressionistic scenes of harbors & coves, painted during the many summers he spent on the coasts of New England & Canada. Throughout his prolific career he painted brilliantly colored images of the rocky coves and harbors that identify the region's dramatic shoreline."