The freedom of the seas

Depicts a coloured lithograph featuring four men on a boat fighting with a large octopus. This image is from the set of 66 lithographs, 'The Great War: Britain's efforts and ideals'. This lithograph was produced in an Edition of 300 of which 100 were for presentation and 200 for sale.
Frank Brangwyn (1867-1956) was not an official war artist, although he produced over 80 poster designs during the first World War. A large proportion of Brangwyn's work during this period was given free of charge to charitable groups, for example the Red Cross, National Institute for the Blind, and Belgian and Allied Aid League. He produced work for clients included the National War Savings Committee, the UERCL (Underground Electric Railways Company of London), and the United States Navy. Brangwyn also designed six recruiting posters for the 'Daily Chronicle' and was involved with the Ministry of Information's Britain's 'Efforts and Ideals of War', producing one design for Ideals ('The Freedom of the Seas') - this work - and a series of six for Efforts, entitled 'Making Sailors'. Brangwyn was one of 12 artists commissioned by the Ministry of Information to design a poster depicting the Ideals of War. In 'Freedom of the Seas' he portrays the enemy symbolically as a frightful mythical sea monster, much like an octopus. The war posters are among Brangwyn's most pictorial, with little decorative content.