Vintage Poster Archives
David Low Lloyd George 1922 | British Propaganda Poster
David Low Lloyd George 1922 | British Propaganda Poster
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A white elephant bearing the word WASTE in block capitals fills the upper half of the composition. Ranged around it, Low has placed four animals, each labelled: a black-and-tan hound for the Black and Tans in Ireland, a goat for the Key Industries Act, a tiger for New Wars, and a small mouse for Housing Efforts. At the centre, a caricature of Lloyd George holds a placard on which LIBERAL and TORY are struck through, leaving only the word ANYTHING. The scene is drawn on a flat chrome yellow ground that gives the black line work maximum force.
Drawn by Sir David Low (1891–1963) for The Star newspaper and printed and published by The Daily News Ltd, London, this poster dates to approximately 1922. Low had joined The Star in 1919 and spent eight years directing sustained satirical scrutiny at Lloyd George's Coalition government. The composition revisits themes from his 1921 collection Lloyd George & Co. The political references are precisely datable: the Black and Tans were active in Ireland in 1920–21; the Safeguarding of Industries Act passed in 1921; the Addison housing programme collapsed under spending cuts the same year. The poster belongs to the final period of the Coalition before the Carlton Club meeting of October 1922.
Low went on to become, in the words of The Guardian's obituary, the dominant cartoonist of the western world. This early Star-era work shows the directness and economy of composition that defined his output for five decades.
Reproduced from an archival source on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper, retaining the saturated yellow ground and precise black line work of the original offset lithograph.
