Exposition de L’Oeuvre de Guerre de Henry de Groux (Exhibition of War Work by Henry de Groux)

Henry de Groux, artist

1867–1930

Exposition de L’Oeuvre de Guerre de Henry de Groux (Exhibition of War Work by Henry de Groux), 1916

Where object was made: France

Material/technique: color lithograph

Dimensions:
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 800 x 1097 mm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 31 1/2 x 43 3/16 in

Credit line: Gift of Professor Eric Gustav Carlson

Accession number: 2014.2340

Not on display

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Belgian artist Henry de Groux spent the war years in Paris where, in November 1916, the Galerie La Boëtie exhibited 299 of his WWI-themed paintings, pastels, drawings, sculptural works, etchings, and lithographs. This poster announces the exhibition. The title of a portfolio of etchings in the exhibition is echoed in the Latin phrase on the poster, vultus victoriae meaning “face of victory.”
The poster, which is in a dramatic style that the artist championed in the 1890s when he was inspired by German composer Richard Wagner, was provided after his first design was censored by the French government. There are reasons to believe that the original poster design was based on a composition of one of the works in the etching portfolio L’Eclipse (The Eclipse) showing a death’s head (the “face of victory”) eclipsing a likeness of Beethoven wearing a crown of thorns (shown below). From these works it is clear de Groux was not anti-German, but rather profoundly anti-war.