During World War I, French banks were called upon to lend funds to the government to finance military operations; these loans were government bonds issued through banks and given by civilians to the government at a fixed low-interest rate. This poster was issued by the Banque Nationale de Crédit to persuade French civilians to subscribe to the second national defense loan campaign in 1916. In this dramatic, painterly image, evoking both the patriotic values and the artistic legacy of France, the winged figure of Victory, dressed in the colors of the French flag, flies over a battlefield of dead and wounded Germans; behind her, the Allied armies appear on the horizon on a bank of rolling clouds.