Arthur Szyk (1894-1951) Polish/American, (5) Framed Illustration Prints. Part of Szyk's "The Visual History of Nations" Series (10 nations total), originally printed from 1949 to 1951. Includes France, Poland, Israel, Canada, and the U.S.S.R. Labels with prior gallery information on the back of each one. 

Frame: 15 1/8 x 13 3/4 in.

Sight: 7 7/8 x 6 3/8 in.

#2610 . 

Arthur Szyk was born June 3rd, 1894 in Łódź, Poland. Although his family had been culturally assimilated and did not practice Orthodox Judaism, Arthur liked drawing scenes from the Torah early on. His father sent Szyk to Paris to study at the Académie Julian in 1912. Although he was exposed to many modern trends in art, he became especially influenced by medieval illuminated manuscripts. Many of the caricatures he produced during his time at the Académie were published in the satirical magazine Śmiech (“Laughter”) that circulated in Łódź. Szyk returned to Poland in 1914 and continued his studies in Teodor Axentowicz’s class at Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków. He traveled with other Polish-Jewish artists and writers to Palestine, but when World War I broke out during the visit he was conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army, fighting at the battle of Łódź in November of 1914. In 1916 Szyk married Julia Likerman, with whom he had two children. In 1919, influenced by the events of the German Revolution, he published his first book of political illustrations, and served as the artistic director of the Propaganda Department of the Polish Army during the Polish-Soviet War. In 1921 his family fled to France to escape the chaos engulfing Eastern Europe, where his reputation grew substantially, although his work was ironically criticized for perpetuating Jewish stereotypes. A series of 38 watercolors he made depicting the American Revolutionary War were exhibited at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. in 1934. From 1934 to 1936 he worked on what is considered his magnum opus, the Illustrated Haggadah, a pivotal story in Jewish history about the Exodus of the Israelites from ancient Egypt. Szyk created 48 miniature paintings for it, introducing many contemporary elements to it in response to Nazi policies in Germany. In 1937 he moved the family to London to supervise the publication of the work. When it was finally released in 1940 it was widely acclaimed for its coloring and modern translation, and became the most expensive book in the world at the time. A presentation of his paintings at the 1939 New York World’s Fair led to his family being granted safe passage to America when World War II began, eventually settling in New York City. He worked tirelessly throughout the war creating pro-Allied propaganda, which solidified much opposition to the Axis powers even before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He also produced advertisements for Coca-Cola and US Steel, and exhibited in the Brooklyn Museum, the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, and the White House. At the end of the war Szyk and his family moved to New Canaan, Connecticut. The artist returned to book illustrations, and in his final years he was a fervent supporter of equal rights for African-Americans, becoming a target of the House Un-American Activities Committee. He died of a heart attack on September 13th, 1951, and although his work had a tremendous impact on politics, advertising, and modern caricature and satire, his popularity dwindled into obscurity during the Cold War, with only a handful of exhibitions, all in the United States, since the 1990s.