1948 Australia Land of Tomorrow by Joe Greenburg

Date: 1948 
Artist: Greenburg, Joe       
Size (in): 39.75” x 29.75” 
Size (cm): 101 x 75.5
Condition: B+
Linen backed: Yes 

This vintage original poster promoting Australia as the “Land of Tomorrow” was created by the artist Joe Greenburg in 1948.   For this poster Greenburg renders a colorful and whimsical scene of a lively farm complete with haystacks, a man riding a tractor, sheep, a windmill, another man riding a horse, a farmhouse and more.  This poster may be broadly defined as in the travel genre but was really intended to promote immigration to Australia more than tourism.   

In the years that followed WWII the Australian government made a major and successful effort to attract immigrants to the sparsely populated “Land Down Under” even redeploying the previously used and somewhat dire slogan “populate or perish”.  In the post WWII period from the 1940s up to the early 1970s some 3,000,000 people immigrated and became “New Australians”.  Most of these people made better lives for themselves and their future generations realized the promise of Australia as the Land of Tomorrow.  

This poster isn’t dated but the Australian National Maritime Museum describes this poster as among Greenburg’s earliest works created in 1948 and the work for which the artist is most renown.  The lower margin indicates “Printed In Australia And Issued By The Commonwealth Department of Information” and Greenburg signs his initials “J.G.” in print in the lower right corner of the image area.  

This vintage original poster has been professionally backed to linen with minimal touch up as needed including expert repair to single clean tear without paper loss on both the upper and lower edges.  The colors retain their original brightness, the poster displays beautifully and overall condition is very good.