작품 상세

Artist: ERIC HENRI KENNINGTON (1888-1960) Size: 21 7/8 x 32 in./55.5 x 81.4 cm The Bayard Press, London A second poster in the "Seeing it Through" series for London Transport, this one championing firefighters, addresses a curious side effect of Londoners' famous "Keep Calm and Carry On" attitude: a compartmentalization of mind. By 1944, it'd been four years since the Blitz. Like the years after 9/11, life had returned to 'normal'; as A.P. Herbert's poem reads, "Once upon a time we used to throw you [firefighters] roses; you don't see quite such a cloud of them today... But you are on the job still, we are in your keeping, / And one fine night we'll be glad of you again." In September 1944, London was terrorized by V-2 rocket attacks; the poem's sentiment dates this poster to 1944's earlier months. (Rail, WWII, Literary, Propaganda, Humanitarian)