Poster; No wet - no cold, by Frederick Schneider Manner, 1929

This poster was commissioned by the Underground Electric Railway Company in 1921. Frederick Schneider Manner's striking image depicts three large grey umbrellas with cog-like forms and a metallic finish. Solid and impenetrable, the umbrellas head for the Underground, repelling the sheets of rain and refracting the shafts of light that slice through the composition. As the shelter the masses from the bleak British weather, the umbrellas also presented an apt metaphor for the Underground.