Columbia Calls. 1916.

Artist: VINCENT ADERENTE (1880-1941)
Size: 29 7/8 x 40 in./76 x 101.7 cm
Condition: A-/ Slight stains at edges.
Printer:
Reference: Ref: Theofiles, 4; Rawls, p. 52; PAI-LXXVI, 98
Key Words: Art Nouveau; World War I; American; Propaganda

Columbia Calls. 1916.
Vincent Aderente, born in Naples, became a U.S. immigrant, studied at the Art Students League in New York City, and then became an assistant to Edwin Blashfield. He worked on the Waldorf-Astoria Ballroom, and his work adorns the Detroit Public Library. He also painted this image as a companion to Flagg's Uncle Sam: a female embodiment of the spirit of Columbia and a Marianne for the New World, sporting a star-spangled Phyrgian cap and carrying the flag and sword of justice. This official WWI recruitment poster was designed by Francis Adams Halsted, who also supplied the stirring poem at lower right. A right-facing swastika appears as a colophon for the poem; before its seizure by the Nazis, it was a sacred and auspicious symbol of good luck, and was actually worn on uniforms of U.S. Army soldiers fighting against Germany in World War I.