---
title: 'Propaganda art: posters, cartoons and paintings by purpose'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-art/
description: 'Propaganda art is any image made to move an audience: posters, cartoons, prints, murals and money. Forms, famous examples and the techniques they use.'
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

# Propaganda art: posters, cartoons and paintings by purpose

Propaganda art is any image made to move an audience: posters, cartoons, prints, murals and money. Forms, famous examples and the techniques they use.

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Propaganda art: posters, cartoons and paintings by purpose

[![Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum-640.jpg)Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) [![A Weak Ticket in the Field and a Weaker Expected (Puck cover, 16 June 1880)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/puck-weak-ticket-both-parties-1880-640.jpg)A Weak Ticket in the Field and a Weaker Expected (Puck cover, 16 June 1880)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/puck-weak-ticket-both-parties-1880/) [![Diagrams of the resettlement work, plate 66 of the Atlas of Asiatic Russia (1914)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/russia-resettlement-diagrams-plate-66-1914-640.jpg)Diagrams of the resettlement work, plate 66 of the Atlas of Asiatic Russia (1914)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/russia-resettlement-diagrams-plate-66-1914/) [!["The Guiding Light" \[The Negro Press, 1827-1944\]](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/owi-alston-the-guiding-light-negro-press-1943-640.jpg)"The Guiding Light" [The Negro Press, 1827-1944]](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/owi-alston-the-guiding-light-negro-press-1943/) [![Shooresh cartoon on the 1953 dissolution referendum: "155544 votes in favour" and opponents before gallows](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/shooresh-referendum-gallows-cartoon-1953-640.jpg)Shooresh cartoon on the 1953 dissolution referendum: "155544 votes in favour" and opponents before gallows](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/shooresh-referendum-gallows-cartoon-1953/) [![ACA Comic Strips: He's Too Hip And He's Covered (HealthCare.gov)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/obama-aca-comic-hipster-healthcare-gov-2015-640.jpg)ACA Comic Strips: He's Too Hip And He's Covered (HealthCare.gov)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/obama-aca-comic-hipster-healthcare-gov-2015/)

> **Content note.** Propaganda art includes caricature of enemies and of ethnic and religious groups, and appeals to hatred, from every side. Items are shown as issued, as evidence of what was said to the public. Showing an item is not endorsing it.

[What is propaganda art?](https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-art/#what-is-propaganda-art) [The forms it takes](https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-art/#the-forms-it-takes) [Why artists and sponsors matter](https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-art/#why-artists-and-sponsors-matter) [Seeing the techniques in the art](https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-art/#seeing-the-techniques-in-the-art)

## What is propaganda art?

Propaganda art is any image made to move an audience toward a belief or an act: posters, cartoons, prints, paintings, murals, banknote and stamp designs, and banners. It is defined by purpose and sponsor, not by style or quality. A work can be fine art and still be propaganda if it was made to serve a campaign, and the same artists often worked in both modes.

## The forms it takes

- **Posters** are the largest group in the collection. See the [propaganda posters](https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-posters/) page for how to read them.
- **Cartoons and prints** reach readers through newspapers and magazines, and use caricature to attach a label to a person or group ([Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)).
- **Paintings, murals and banners** carry the same messages in public places. Soviet "socialist realism", adopted as the official artistic doctrine in 1934, is the best-known state-directed style; other states and parties commissioned art in their own styles.

Show all 5Show fewer

- **Hand-painted windows and street art.** The Soviet ROSTA windows of 1919 to 1921 were hand-stencilled news posters in shop windows, and later street art has served both protest and state campaigns.
- **Money and stamps** put a message into daily life through objects people handle and cannot avoid.

## Why artists and sponsors matter

Famous images are often collaborations between a sponsor with an aim and an artist with a style. James Montgomery Flagg's 1917 "I Want You for U.S. Army" and Alfred Leete's 1914 Kitchener recruiting image are the usual examples from the First World War, and posters of the same kind appeared in Germany, France, Russia and Italy in the same years ([WW1 posters by country](https://propagandaarchive.org/ww1-propaganda-posters/by-country/)). The archive records the issuer, date and source of each item, and applies the same questions to every side ([how to spot propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/how-to-spot-propaganda/)).

## Seeing the techniques in the art

Most propaganda art uses a small set of devices: a symbol carried onto a cause ([Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)), a threat to provoke fear ([Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)), a crowd to suggest everyone agrees, and a single striking figure. The [types of propaganda](https://propagandaarchive.org/types-of-propaganda/) page lists them, and the grid below shows cartoons, prints and artworks from the collection.

Sources and further reading

## Sources

Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion (Sage).

Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O'Donnell, *Propaganda and Persuasion* (Sage). Alfred McClung Lee and Elizabeth Briant Lee, *The Fine Art of Propaganda* (Institute for Propaganda Analysis, 1939). Items in the grid carry their own source and rights notes.

## Cartoons, prints and artworks in the collection

Showing 24 of 642 objects. [Filter the whole collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/).

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Relief on the Arch of Titus, Rome: soldiers carrying the menorah and other spoils from the Temple at Jerusalem in a triumphal procession](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-arch-of-titus-spoils-of-jerusalem-0081/) (Roman Empire · 0081 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman state relief commemorating the capture of Jerusalem in 70, showing soldiers in a triumphal procession carrying the Temple's menorah and other spoils; shown as it stands, with the historical context on the regime page.
- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (Kingdom of England · 1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Woodcut 'A table describing the burning of Bishop Ridley and Father Latimer at Oxford', in John Foxe, Actes and Monuments (1563)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/foxe-latimer-ridley-burning-1563/) (England · 1563 · Transfer, Card stacking). Content note: Shows the burning of two Protestant bishops at the stake at Oxford in 1555, in a woodcut printed in 1563 by an English Protestant author; it is shown as printed, with the historical context on the regime page.
- [The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (Royal Museums Greenwich version), oil on panel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i-greenwich-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (Spanish Netherlands · 1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Trois Tetes sous l'meme bonnet (three heads under the same cap)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/trois-tetes-sous-le-meme-bonnet-1789/) (France · 1789 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)