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Arthur Szyk(Polish, 1894-1951)Design for Passover
£8,000 - £12,000
Arthur Szyk (Polish, 1894-1951)
signed with initials in Hebrew (lower centre)
gouache, oval
40 x 29cm (15 3/4 x 11 7/16in).
Footnotes
PROVENANCE:
Vincent Price Collection, Sears, Roebuck & Co.;
Private collection, USA.
The inscription beneath the crown, written in Hebrew reads 'If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning', which is taken from Psalm 137:5. The inscription in the centre reads 'Pesach' (Passover).
Arthur Szyk was born in Poland to Jewish parents. Considered a child prodigy, he studied at the Academie Julien in Paris, before continuing his studies in Krakow and Palestine. He served on the front line of the Russian army in 1914 and as a guerilla during the Polish-Bolshevik War in 1921.
Szyk is best known as an illustrator and caricaturist; his style was very distinctive, taking inspiration from medieval miniatures and illuminated manuscripts. His work was very politically charged, his stated aim to attack political injustice and human suffering. He said of his work: 'Art is not my aim, it is my means...I am but a Jew praying in art.'
Among his impressive body of work, Szyk produced illustrations for Rewolucja w Niemczech (a satire of post-World War I Germany), La Tentation de Saint Antoine, Le Juif Qui Rit, Le Puits de Jacob, The Statute of Kalisz, The League of Nations Covenent, and Washington and his Times, a series of miniatures based on the American Revolution.
Perhaps his most famous and admired work was the Hagaddah of Pesach, known as the 'Szyk Hagaddah', which he worked on from 1930-36 and was described by the Times as 'among the most beautiful of books that the hand of man has ever produced'. The Hagaddah contained explicit references to the Nazis and had to be tempered prior to its publication in 1937. Following the outbreak of World War Two, Szyk's continued his overtly anti-Nazi stance, and was active in petitioning the USA to get involved in the war. Szyk's persistence was such that Eleanor Roosevelt commented 'This is a personal war of Szyk against Hitler, and I do not think that Mr. Szyk will lose this war!'.
Szyk settled in the USA in 1940, where he lived until his death in 1951.
'The Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art' was launched by Sears in October 1962, and comprised thousands of original art works which Price- best known as a screen actor but also an avid and experienced art collector and historian- was given free reign to source. The collection contained works by many important contemporary artists, including Salvador Dali, and many of the works were specially commissioned for sale in the collection. The experiment was an immediate success and was eventually rolled out to all of Sears stores. When the program ended in 1971, Sears had sold over 50,000 works.
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