20x28 inches, 50 3/4x71 cm. Russian War Relief, Inc. Condition A-: minor offsetting in left margin; minor foxing in margins. Silkscreen. Paper.
"A nephew of the painter Nikolai Sapunov, Sergei Nikolaevich Kostin began his studies in 1918 in Moscow at GSKhM. He graduated in 1919 from the Independent Studio of the State Free Art Studios (SVOMAS). From 1922 to 1924, he worked in the Artistic-Industrial Workshop for Toys in Zagorsk, and in 1924 he joined Gosizdat as a graphic designer. The following year, he collaborated with David Shterenberg to design the Department of State Trade in the Soviet pavilion at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris. During the 1930s, he worked as a stage designer for the Bolshoi Theater. He designed fifty-nine posters for the TASS studio between June 1941 and October 1946" (Windows on the War, https://archive.artic.edu/tass/203933). This stencil illustration was created as part of TASS Window No. 0109, August 5, 1941, with the accompanying text: "Cautionary measures have been taken. / A leashed dog is more reliable and violent. / A chained soldier will fight more courageously: / He cannot run away." Pollack pl. 300.
![DAPRÈS SERGEI NIKOLAEVICH KOSTIN (1896-1968). [CHAIN HIM!] 1941. 20x28 inches, 50¾x71 cm. Russian War Relief, Inc.](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//262\783262.jpg)