---
title: 'French propaganda posters: WWI, colonial, Vichy and Free France'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/french-propaganda-posters/
description: 'French propaganda posters, 1906 to 1943: WWI loans, colonial exhibitions, Vichy and Free France, with who issued each and the technique.'
section: FRAME
---

![Illustration: a dossier collage of an evidence wall of pinned propaganda posters, leaflets and printed matter from many eras, with contact sheets and catalog labels.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-collection.jpg)

Collection

# French propaganda posters: WWI, colonial, Vichy and Free France

French propaganda posters, 1906 to 1943: WWI loans, colonial exhibitions, Vichy and Free France, with who issued each and the technique.

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. French propaganda posters

[![Irrévocablement. Ouverture 15 avril. Marseille. Exposition coloniale (1906)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/marseille-exposition-coloniale-irrevocablement-1906-640.jpg)Irrévocablement. Ouverture 15 avril. Marseille. Exposition coloniale (1906)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/marseille-exposition-coloniale-irrevocablement-1906/) [![La puissance militaire de la France (Section cinématographique de l'armée)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/france-puissance-militaire-1917-640.jpg)La puissance militaire de la France (Section cinématographique de l'armée)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/france-puissance-militaire-1917/) [![Exposition coloniale, Marseille 1922 (Colonial Exhibition, Marseille 1922), poster by Leonetto Cappiello](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/exposition-coloniale-marseille-cappiello-1922-640.jpg)Exposition coloniale, Marseille 1922 (Colonial Exhibition, Marseille 1922), poster by Leonetto Cappiello](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exposition-coloniale-marseille-cappiello-1922/) [![Combattants Allies: Vos compatriotes en pays occupe frappent aussi!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/combattants-allies-vos-compatriotes-1939-640.jpg)Combattants Allies: Vos compatriotes en pays occupe frappent aussi!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/combattants-allies-vos-compatriotes-1939/) [![Armistice Day - The Free French and Their Friends Will Commemorate the Only Armistice They Recognize (New York, 11 November 1941)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/armistice-day-free-french-france-forever-1941-640.jpg)Armistice Day - The Free French and Their Friends Will Commemorate the Only Armistice They Recognize (New York, 11 November 1941)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armistice-day-free-french-france-forever-1941/) [![J'aimerais mieux rendre l'âme à Dieu (I would rather give up my soul to God), ORAFF poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/vichy-joan-of-arc-english-hands-oraff-1943-640.jpg)J'aimerais mieux rendre l'âme à Dieu (I would rather give up my soul to God), ORAFF poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/vichy-joan-of-arc-english-hands-oraff-1943/)

> **Content note.** This page shows a Vichy poster that caricatures a gunman, colonial-exhibition and advertising posters that pose African and Asian people as costumed hosts or in mock dialect, and a 1942 Paris exhibition panel that presents Jews as the hidden source of all of Europe's enemies. They are shown as issued. Showing an item is not endorsing it.

[What were French propaganda posters?](https://propagandaarchive.org/french-propaganda-posters/#what-were-french-propaganda-posters) [The First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/french-propaganda-posters/#the-first-world-war-loans-flags-and-the-empire) [Colonial exhibitions and the interwar left](https://propagandaarchive.org/french-propaganda-posters/#colonial-exhibitions-and-the-interwar-left) [1940 to 1943](https://propagandaarchive.org/french-propaganda-posters/#1940-to-1943-vichy-and-free-france) [What the collection does not hold](https://propagandaarchive.org/french-propaganda-posters/#what-the-collection-does-not-hold)

## What were French propaganda posters?

French propaganda posters are the loan appeals, recruiting and fundraising sheets, colonial advertisements, party posters and wartime state posters issued in France, its empire and its exile movements between 1906 and 1943. Their makers differ sharply: the Third Republic, banks, the Communist Party, the Vichy State and the Free French each used the same tools for opposed ends.

![Poster, 1916: a French infantryman turns and shouts On les aura, above a call to subscribe to the Second National Defence Loan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/on-les-aura-1916.jpg)

## The First World War: loans, flags and the empire

Abel Faivre's 1916 loan poster puts a charging soldier above the words "On les aura!"; his courage is moved onto the act of buying a bond ([Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)). The Army's film section issued "La puissance militaire de la France" (1917), where massed ranks and regimental flags stand in for any figures about strength ([Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)).

![Poster, 1917: colonial infantry advance under the tricolour behind a mounted North African horseman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/journee-armee-afrique-troupes-coloniales-fouqueray-1917.jpg)

![Poster, 1918: French soldiers with drums march into Strasbourg under tricolours, an appeal for the Loan of Liberation](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/banque-alsace-lorraine-emprunt-liberation-hansi-1918.jpg)

![Poster, 1918: a spiked-helmet Kaiser tramples a man and offers a peace treaty to a kneeling woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/la-paix-de-lennemi-prouve-1918.jpg)

![Poster, 1917: the Army's film section shows massed ranks and a general presenting flags](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/france-puissance-militaire-1917.jpg)

![Poster, 1918: notaries of Paris quote Clemenceau under a helmeted female figure](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/compagnie-des-notaires-4eme-emprunt-defense-nationale-1918.jpg)

**Content note:** Advertising poster showing a grinning colonial soldier with a mock-pidgin caption ('y'a bon'). This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) ![Advertisement, 1915: a grinning colonial infantryman eats from a tin cup beside a Banania crate](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/banania-y-a-bon-poster-1915.jpg)

Explain moreShow less

Charles Fouqueray's 1917 fundraising-day poster attaches colonial infantry to the French cause with a flag, cavalry and an Arabic phrase ([Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)). Banania's 1915 advertisement uses a grinning tirailleur and the mock-dialect "y'a bon" to sell a breakfast food ([Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)); its sponsor was a company, not the state.

In 1918 the Banque d'Alsace et de Lorraine used Hansi's Strasbourg scene to sell the Loan of Liberation ([Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)), while the Paris notaries quoted Clemenceau on "the magnificent work of the dead" to make a subscription a duty ([Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/)).

V. Prouvé's "La paix de l'ennemi" (1918) argues from two hand-picked cases, Russia and Romania, to one predicted fate for France ([Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)). For other nations' sheets see [WW1 posters by country](https://propagandaarchive.org/ww1-propaganda-posters/by-country/).

**Content note:** Colour poster in which colonised peoples are drawn as costumed exhibition hosts, including a West African man with a dark, stylised face; advertises staged displays of colonial life. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) ![Poster, 1906: a notice listing exotic reconstructions and native festivals, with costumed figures around it](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/marseille-exposition-coloniale-irrevocablement-1906.jpg)

## Colonial exhibitions and the interwar left

The 1906 Marseille exhibition poster offers the empire as pavilions, produce and spectacle ([Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)); Cappiello's 1922 poster for the next Marseille exhibition shows the Republic receiving tribute of wheat and cotton ([Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)).

**Content note:** Colonial-exhibition poster depicting colonised peoples as costumed types offering produce to a personified France This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) ![Poster, 1922: a laurel-crowned woman in tricolour drapery above figures offering wheat, cotton and fruit](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/exposition-coloniale-marseille-cappiello-1922.jpg)

**Content note:** Colonial-era poster showing Algerian dockers and fruit-sellers under the French tricolour, issued to celebrate the centenary of the 1830 French conquest. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) ![Poster, 1929: a tricolour with an R F monogram over Algiers harbour](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/centenaire-algerie-cauvy-1929.jpg)

![Poster, 1927: a portrait of Marcel Cachin beside red and black type about the war in Morocco](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/cachin-jete-en-prison-guerre-du-maroc-1927.jpg)

Explain moreShow less

The Algiers administration's 1929 centenary poster sets a tricolour over a harbour of Algerian dockers ([Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)).

The opposition used the same medium. The Communist Party's 1927 strip poster says Marcel Cachin was jailed by "the bourgeoisie" for opposing "the criminal war of Morocco", labels stated as fact ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)).

**Content note:** Vichy anti-communist poster: caricatured gunman firing from the folds of a tricolour, red-star-capped figure behind. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) ![Poster, 1941: a gunman fires from the folds of a tricolour while a figure in a red-star cap looms behind](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/ils-assassinent-vichy-1941.jpg)

## 1940 to 1943: Vichy and Free France

The Vichy State's Secretariat-General for Information and Propaganda issued "Ils assassinent!" (1941): the accused are never named, but the red star assigns the shooting to a political enemy ([Scapegoating](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/scapegoating/)). Its ORAFF posters of 1943 borrow Clemenceau and Joan of Arc to carry an anti-British message ([Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/)).

![Poster, 1943: a stylised Clemenceau above his words on Britain as our oldest enemy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/vichy-clemenceau-england-oldest-enemy-oraff-1943.jpg)

![Poster, 1943: a stylised head of Joan of Arc above a line about the hands of the English](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/vichy-joan-of-arc-english-hands-oraff-1943.jpg)

![Panel, Paris, 1942: a wiring diagram connecting unrelated parties and banks to one group](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/judaisme-hegemonie-mondiale-paris-exhibition-1942.jpg)

![Poster: a French general in a kepi stands over tanks, sailors and an aircraft, above Honneur et Patrie](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/fr-honneur-et-patrie-free-french-1940s.jpg)

![Poster, 1940: a winged figure with a raised sword beside a Cross of Lorraine badge marked France Libre](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/us-la-france-a-perdu-une-bataille-france-forever-1940.jpg)

![Forged stamp sheet, 1943: twenty red 30-centime stamps with Petain's profile overlapped by a second face](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bcra-petain-laval-forged-30c-stamp-1943.jpg)

Explain moreShow less

The 1942 Paris panel "Le judaïsme tend à l'hégémonie mondiale" was shown at an exhibition organised by French collaborationist bodies with German support; one group is made the hidden source of all others ([Big lie](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/big-lie/)).

The Free French answered in kind. "Honneur et Patrie" lays army, navy and air imagery on a general's figure ([Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)), and France Forever, a New York committee, printed de Gaulle's "France has lost a battle" text over the Arc de Triomphe figure and a Cross of Lorraine. In 1943 the Free French intelligence service forged a Vichy stamp fusing Pétain's profile with Laval's ([False flag](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/false-flag/)).

The scale and intent differ: Vichy and Free France each issued material to win a divided public, one with a state apparatus, the other from exile.

## What the collection does not hold

- **Not here:** French posters of 1945 to 1991 (the Fourth Republic's Indochina and Algeria wars, Cold War party and state posters); the collection holds a Viet Minh leaflet but no French-issued posters of those years.
- **Not here:** Vichy's Milice and Légion des volontaires recruiting posters, and Resistance clandestine press.
- **Not here:** a 1939 to 1940 Third Republic poster set; the French-language war-savings poster in the grid is Canadian by subject, and the Allied-side "Combattants Allies" sheet has no named issuer.

Sources and further reading

## Sources

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (World War I posters); Bibliothèque nationale de France, Gallica; Musée…

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division (World War I posters); Bibliothèque nationale de France, Gallica; Musée Carnavalet and Musée de la Libération de Paris (Paris Musées Collections); Archives nationales d'outre-mer; National Archives and Records Administration. Each item in the grid carries its own source and rights note.

## French propaganda posters in the collection

Showing 28 of 28 objects. [Filter the whole collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/).

- [Irrévocablement. Ouverture 15 avril. Marseille. Exposition coloniale (1906)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/marseille-exposition-coloniale-irrevocablement-1906/) (France · 1906 · Card stacking)
- [Aux Femmes Françaises (To French Women) — government appeal, 6 August 1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/aux-femmes-francaises-viviani-1914/) (France · Aug 6, 1914 · Glittering generalities, Card stacking)
- [Banania "y'a bon" (advertising poster, Paris, 1915)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/banania-y-a-bon-poster-1915/) (France · 1915 · Transfer). Content note: Racialised caricature of a Black colonial soldier, with the pidgin slogan 'y'a bon'.
- [On les aura! 2e Emprunt de la Défense Nationale. Souscrivez (We'll get them! Second National Defence Loan. Subscribe)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/on-les-aura-1916/) (France · 1916 · Transfer)
- [La Journée Serbe, 25 juin 1916 (Charles Fouqueray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/france-journee-serbe-kossovo-1916/) (France · Jun 25, 1916 · Transfer)
- [La puissance militaire de la France (Section cinématographique de l'armée)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/france-puissance-militaire-1917/) (France · 1917 · Glittering generalities, Transfer)
- [Journée de l'armée d'Afrique et des troupes coloniales (Day of the Army of Africa and the Colonial Troops), Fouqueray](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/journee-armee-afrique-troupes-coloniales-fouqueray-1917/) (France · 1917 · Transfer)
- [Emprunt de la Libération: on souscrit à la Banque d'Alsace et de Lorraine (Hansi, 1918)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/banque-alsace-lorraine-emprunt-liberation-hansi-1918/) (France · 1918 · Transfer)
- [Français! Souscrivez Tous au 4ème Emprunt de la Défense Nationale (Frenchmen! All Subscribe to the 4th National Defence Loan)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/compagnie-des-notaires-4eme-emprunt-defense-nationale-1918/) (France · 1918 · Testimonial, Identity fusion)
- [La paix de l'ennemi (Peace on the Enemy's Terms)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-paix-de-lennemi-prouve-1918/) (France · 1918 · Fear appeal, Card stacking)
- [Exposition coloniale, Marseille 1922 (Colonial Exhibition, Marseille 1922), poster by Leonetto Cappiello](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exposition-coloniale-marseille-cappiello-1922/) (France · 1922 · Transfer)
- ["Sous le soleil équatorial" (Le Petit Journal illustré, 6 July 1924)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/petit-journal-congo-ocean-railway-1924/) (France · Jul 6, 1924 · Euphemism / doublespeak, Glittering generalities)
- ["Femmes ! ... exigez la paix immédiate au Maroc" (PCF sticker, Rif war, 1925)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pcf-papillon-femmes-paix-immediate-maroc-1925/) (France · 1925 · Fear appeal)
- ["La guerre du Maroc, suite": Painlevé orders forged Zinoviev letters (L'Humanité, 21 June 1925)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/painleve-forger-zinoviev-abd-el-krim-humanite-1925/) (France · Jun 21, 1925 · Name-calling)
- [Cachin, jeté en prison ... contre la guerre criminelle du Maroc (Cachin, Thrown into Prison ... for Opposing the Criminal War in Morocco)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cachin-jete-en-prison-guerre-du-maroc-1927/) (France · 1927 · Name-calling)
- [Centenaire de l'Algérie, 1830-1930 (poster by Léon Cauvy)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/centenaire-algerie-cauvy-1929/) (French Algeria · 1929 · Transfer)
- [Combattants Allies: Vos compatriotes en pays occupe frappent aussi!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/combattants-allies-vos-compatriotes-1939/) (Transnational · 1939 · Bandwagon, Transfer)
- [Honneur et Patrie](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/fr-honneur-et-patrie-free-french-1940s/) (Free France · 1939 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Help Free French to Fight for Democracy - Join France Forever](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/help-free-french-to-fight-join-france-forever-1940s/) (United States · 1939 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [La France a perdu une bataille! Mais la France n'a pas perdu la guerre! Aux Armes Citoyens! Formez vos Bataillons... (France Forever)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/us-la-france-a-perdu-une-bataille-france-forever-1940/) (United States · 1940 · Transfer)
- [Pour qui? Pour l'Angleterre! (German anti-British posters, France)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pour-qui-pour-langleterre-posters-1940/) (Nazi Germany · Jun 1940 · Name-calling, Scapegoating). Content note: French-language poster calling the English 'barbare, égoïste, cruel'.
- [Armistice Day - The Free French and Their Friends Will Commemorate the Only Armistice They Recognize (New York, 11 November 1941)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armistice-day-free-french-france-forever-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Ils assassinent ! Enveloppés dans les plis de notre drapeau (They murder! Wrapped in the folds of our flag)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ils-assassinent-vichy-1941/) (Vichy France · 1941 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Le judaïsme tend à l'hégémonie mondiale (panel, Le Bolchevisme contre l'Europe exhibition, Paris)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/judaisme-hegemonie-mondiale-paris-exhibition-1942/) (Nazi Germany · Mar 1942 · Scapegoating, Big lie, Guilt by association). Content note: Antisemitic conspiracy diagram with a caricature figure marked with a Star of David, as displayed at a 1942 German-backed exhibition in occupied Paris.
- [BCRA forged Vichy 30c Pétain-Laval stamp, sheet of twenty (London, 1942-44)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bcra-petain-laval-forged-30c-stamp-1943/) (Free France · 1943 · Transfer, False flag)
- [Felix Eboue', Governor General Fighting French Africa - Scholar, Statesman, Soldier](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/owi-alston-felix-eboue-fighting-french-africa-1943/) (United States · 1943 · Glittering generalities, Card stacking)
- [La Grande-Bretagne n'a pas cessé d'être une île (Great Britain has not ceased to be an island), ORAFF poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/vichy-clemenceau-england-oldest-enemy-oraff-1943/) (Vichy France · 1943 · Testimonial)
- [J'aimerais mieux rendre l'âme à Dieu (I would rather give up my soul to God), ORAFF poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/vichy-joan-of-arc-english-hands-oraff-1943/) (Vichy France · 1943 · Testimonial, Transfer)