No. 3 "Poland a Nation" [From 'The Great War: Britain's Efforts And Ideals shown in a series of lithographic prints: 'The Ideals' series]

Artist Edmund Dulac (1882 - 1953)

Date1917

MediumLithograph on paper

Dimensions80.5 x 51.2 cm

ClassificationsPrint

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Donated by the British Ministry of Information. © The Estate of Edmund Dulac.

Object number458

DescriptionThis is a four colour planographic print (lithograph) on paper, and is part of a series entitled 'The Great War: Britain's Efforts And Ideals shown in a series of lithographic prints: 'The Ideals' series. There are a total of six lithographs in this particular series, and in total there are ten series. The lithographs are numbered as if the entire ten series are one, so this print is number 3.

During the First World War, the illustrated book market collapsed and Dulac worked instead for the war effort, designing stamps and gift books for charity, and posters and other ephemera, for little or no money. Along with his friends and fellow artists, Charles Ricketts and Charles Shannon, Dulac was selected to produce one of the Ideals. Dulac’s skill at conceiving and modelling his pictures in colour rather than simply adding colours to a linear design is much in evidence in this image and he was recognised as making great use of the breakthrough in four-colour printing. Despite the dramatic subject matter, there is a lyrical sense of tone and composition in his work. The flat colour, asymmetrical composition shows the influence of Japanese prints which he had studied intensively in his youth. The influence of Indian and Persian miniatures is also evident in the high detail and colour of the image. While Poland did not exist as an independent state during World War One, its geographical position between the fighting powers had meant that much fighting and terrible human and material losses occurred on the Polish lands between 1914 and 1918. When World War One started, Polish territory, split during partitions between Austria-Hungary, German Empire and Russian Empire, became the scene of much of the operations of the Eastern Front of World War One. After World War One and the collapse of the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, Poland became an independent republic. In this highly stylized image, Dulac depicts a winged man dressed in armor wiping off a bloody sword with a spotted skin that he is wearing; he is standing over a black bird that he has just killed; a white eagle, the symbol of Poland, is behind the figure.
Margarita Cappock 2014

It depicts a red winged warrior pulling his sword from a very large dead black bird. Behind him, with its wings outstretched, there is a very large white bird. In the background there is a bare, perhaps dead, tree set against a yellow sky.

Dulac was born in Toulouse, France, he began his career by studying law at the University of Toulouse, but also followed classes in the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He spent a very brief period at the Académie Julien in Paris in 1904 before moving to London. He became one of the foremost illustrators at that time, illustrating many fairytales, as well as editions of the Brontë sister's, Shakespeare and Poe.

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