Here, a soldier admonishes civilians in a town to learn the lesson given to the soldiers at the front (on the left) on January 1, 1918, by General Pétain: “Be patient, be determined.” This simple, illustrated poster was a straightforward piece of government propaganda directed at war-weary civilians as the end of World War I was in sight. Pétain was at this stage a great French hero, celebrated especially for his role in the French victory at Verdun in 1916. His reputation was decisively tarnished, however, by his later collaboration with the Nazi occupiers during his tenure as chief of state of the Vichy regime during World War II. This was one of many propaganda posters designed by Victor Prouvé, a distinguished painter, printmaker, sculptor, and designer of decorative objects, during the war. He had been a key figure in the development of Art Nouveau and after the war became the director of the École des Beaux-Arts in Nancy, a center for the emergence of the style.