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"Forward! The Day is Breaking!"

Poster
1910 (published)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Spencer Pryse is best remembered as a lithographer. The remarkable set of three posters - of which this is one - made for the British Labour Party election campaign of 1910 reveal him to have been not only a great humanitarian but also a skilled draughtsman. The posters were praised by the Labour Party at the time and they enjoyed unprecedented elevation - for a poster - to the status of fine art when exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists in 1914. Their enduring worth was further endorsed by reissue at the time of the 1929 election, and again as commercial stock in 1971. Impressions of the other two posters in this group are also in the V&A's collection (E.3140-1913 and 3141-1913).

Object details

Categories
Object type
Title"Forward! The Day is Breaking!" (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Colour lithograph
Brief description
'Forward! The Day is Breaking!' Gerald Eric Spencer Pryse for the Labour Party; Great Britain, 1910
Physical description
Crowd scene of men, women and children in working class dress marching forwards
Dimensions
  • Height: 101.4cm
  • Width: 148.6cm
Style
Gallery label
(01/05/2014-02/11/2014)
This election poster is one of a set of three early Labour Party posters designed by Spencer Pryse. The others are entitled ‘Jobless’ and ‘Landless’. In 1910 Britain was in the midst of a constitutional crisis brought about by the House of Lords’ rejection of the Liberal Party’s ‘People’s Budget’. The budget proposed taxes on the wealthy and far-reaching social welfare programmes.

A World to Win: Posters of Protest and Revolution, V&A, Galleries 88a and 90, (1 May-2 Nov 2014)
Credit line
Given by the Labour Party
Subjects depicted
Summary
Spencer Pryse is best remembered as a lithographer. The remarkable set of three posters - of which this is one - made for the British Labour Party election campaign of 1910 reveal him to have been not only a great humanitarian but also a skilled draughtsman. The posters were praised by the Labour Party at the time and they enjoyed unprecedented elevation - for a poster - to the status of fine art when exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists in 1914. Their enduring worth was further endorsed by reissue at the time of the 1929 election, and again as commercial stock in 1971. Impressions of the other two posters in this group are also in the V&A's collection (E.3140-1913 and 3141-1913).
Associated objects
Bibliographic references
  • Timmers, Margaet (Ed). Impressions of the Twentieth Century: Fine Art PRints from the V&A's Collection. London, V&A Publications, 2001.
  • Victoria and Albert Museum, Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design, Accessions 1913, London: Printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1914
Collection
Accession number
E.3139-1913

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Record createdDecember 16, 2002
Record URL
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