Louis Raemaekers (1869-1956) - cartoons and exhibition

Last Friday I was invited at the opening of the the War Witness Louis Raemaekers exhibition in the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres (Belgium). I was very surprised seeing the exhibited collection of original drawings, cartoons and 'vintage' publications . Many old, often rare Raemaekers books are shown and are a pleasure to look at. As I can't afford buying some original Raemaekers cartoons or books, I bought the lovely exhibition catalogue, written by Ariane de Ranitz (Holland, works on a Raemaekers biography and website) and Jan Dewilde (IFFM). This is how the cover looks like:

'I want people to know, to think, to see the war as it is'

Louis Raemaekers

Here are some cartoons out of the book:

1. Our sacrifice for the world 1919/ Consumatum Est

2. Belgium, 1919 (in America in the war):

3. Belgium resists against German attack:

4. About this drawing, Ariane de Ranitz told an interesting story. It will be all written in the biography.

'Louis Raemaekers, the biting anti-German cartoonist of the 1914-18 War, died on July 26, 1956 at Scheveningen, naar The Hague, at the age of 87. It has been said of Raemaekers that he was the one private individual who exercised a real and great influence on the course of the 1914-18 War. There were a dozen or so people - emperors, kings, statesman, and commanders-in-chief - who obviously, and notoriously, shaped policies and guided events. Outside that circle of the great, Louis Raemaekers stands conspicious as the one man who, without any assistance of title or office, indubitably swayed the destinies of peoples.'

(The New York Times, Raemaekers obituary, summer 1956)

Authors Jan Dewilde and Ariane de Ranitz at the presentation of the catalogue:

Some impressions of the exhibition:

The Catalogue costs 18 euro -

Where to find: IFFM Ypres.

Learn more:

Visit the exhibition in Ypres 24 October 2009 - 3 January 2010

Try this: Read many digitized Raemaekers books online - (Internet Archive)

Louis Raemaekers at Wikipedia + links

In Flanders Fields Museum Ypres

Louis Raemaekers in English

coming soon: www.louisraemaekers.nl

Louis Raemaekers in Dutch

also read this Raemaekers Article on our blog.