conclusions

image banks
--l'assiette au beurre

The dozen pochoir illustrations reproduced on these pages come from a small brochure published by the luxury  fashion editor Devambez in 1918. It was clearly intended as a souvenir piece for American soldiers to take back home with them, since, while the titles of the drawings are in French, the facing explanatory texts are in English (it is likely that some copies entirely in French also existed). Note the distinct reference to the alliance of France and the US in the very first image celebrating the “ancestor,” Lafayette, and how the announcement of “La Guerre !!” calls upon what was already a western, cowboy mythology. Other noteworthy plates: Le Port , where we find the rare depiction of a black soldier; and Officiers et Soldats, the only plate that actually shows men at war.