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Cartoon of General Petain by E. Schloss, May 1945 14.5 x 17.5 in (36.8 x 44.4 cm) image 1
Cartoon of General Petain by E. Schloss, May 1945 14.5 x 17.5 in (36.8 x 44.4 cm) image 2
Lot 166

Cartoon of General Petain by E. Schloss, May 1945
14.5 x 17.5 in (36.8 x 44.4 cm)

29 April 2015, 10:00 EDT
New York

US$700 - US$1,000

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Cartoon of General Petain by E. Schloss, May 1945

A pen, ink and watercolor cartoon, on paper, of General Philippe Petain, Chief of State of Vichy France. The cartoon portrays a wizened Petain in monochrome with red highlights, his hands dripping with blood and his necktie and handkerchief decorated with swastikas, as he peers from behind prison bars. Text beneath the illustration reads: "PETAIN: 'ILS DEMANDENT MA TETE, MAI JE N'EN AI PAS. / THEY DEMAND MY HEAD, BUT I DON'T HAVE ONE.'" The sketch is signed: "E. SCHLOSS N.Y. MAY 1945.". Framed.

This cartoon was drawn by Ezekial Schloss, a cartoonist for France Amerique, The New Republic and The Nation who fled Latvia for the USA in 1940. The cartoon references the 1945 return to liberated France by General Philippe Petain, the former puppet ruler of the Vichy French state established by the Nazis after their defeat of France in 1940. Petain is portrayed as a fool and a Nazi sympathizer with blood on his hands.
14.5 x 17.5 in (36.8 x 44.4 cm)

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