H.R. HOPPS (1869-1937) DESTROY THIS MAD BRUTE / ENLIST. Circa 1917.
42x28 inches, 106 3/4x71 cm. Schmidt Lithograph Co., San Francisco.
Condition B+: expertly repaired tear through image; minor water stains in left margin; repaired tears and wrinkling at edges; restoration in upper right corner. Mounted on Japan.
"One of the most striking American posters issued during the war" (Picture This p. 68), this fantastic World War I recruitment poster distills the horrors of a German invasion of America into a savage, primitive, sexually charged theme. A red-tongued and drooling gorilla, whose helmet reads "Militarism," is clutching a desperate maiden with her dress torn off in one paw and a bloody club, reading 'Kultur,' in the other. He is stepping over the sea into America, leaving a burned down and ravaged Europe behind him. "The phallic and bloody cudgel and the beast's power over the half naked girl, give urgency to the enlistment call. As the beast steps onto American shores, recruits are invited both to fight militarism and to vie for the eroticized figure of raped Liberty" (Picture This p. 69). Popular folklore has it that this image was the influence for King Kong. Although this poster does not bear any indication of where it was printed, the companies listed at the bottom are all San Francisco area lithographers. This copy bears the scarce overprint "US ARMY 660 - MARKET ST.," the address of the San Francisco army recruiting office. Rawls p. 66, Paret 32, Borkan cov. and p. 16, Beauty and the Beast p. 5, Picture This p. 69.