Thomas Jefferson’s Oath. “I Have Sworn Upon the Altar of God…” New Canaan, 1951.

SZYK, Arthur. Thomas Jefferson’s Oath. “I have sworn upon the altar of God…” Signed and Dated “Arthur Szyk, New Canaan 1951”. Watercolor and gouache on paper. Sheet size: 10″ x 8″. Image size: 9 1/4″ x 7 1/2″. Very Good condition.

“I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” These majestic words of Thomas Jefferson were taken from a letter he wrote to Dr. Benjamin Rush on September 23, 1800 shortly before Jefferson became our nation’s third president. Keenly aware of the power of the written and spoken word, the author of our Declaration of Independence brought prominence to the nouns Liberty, Tyranny, Justice, and Freedom. It is tyranny which Szyk addresses in this illumination. Tyranny is an epic chimera with the front legs of a lion, the back legs of a goat, an eagle’s head and a tail composed of snakes: this malevolent creature is covered with scales, fins, horns, spurs, and fur. World War II had been over for only a few years, and its memory must have felt still fresh, for holding the beast at bay is a lone G.I. with a simple lance.

Arthur Szyk embraced the democratic ideals of the United States long before he became a naturalized citizen in 1948. He had tremendous admiration for our country’s founding fathers and he extensively painted these heroes (e.g., Szyk’s series “Washington and His Times”), and memorialized the words of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington into beautiful and inspiring works of art. Painted the year of his death, this illumination was one of Szyk’s last.

Though it was Jefferson who voiced this noble oath nearly 200 years ago, it is certainly Szyk’s proclamation as well. “Knowing that Szyk saw his art as a means of conveying universal messages, one can assume that he also intended this work to fulfill a function: it should hang in many American homes and offices, calling on the people to make Jefferson’s principals of action their own.” (Katja Widmann, DHM Catalogue, p. 286).

Exhibition History: Library of Congress, Washington, DC, December 9, 1999–May 6, 2000; Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, 29 August 2008–4 January 2009. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Palace of the Legion of Honor, December 4, 2010–March 27, 2011 (introductory image).

Publishing History: The Library of Congress Information Bulletin, January, 2000, p. 13; San Mateo Times, San Mateo, CA, August 15, 2005, front cover, p. 1; Freedom Illuminated: Understanding The Szyk Haggadah, Burlingame, CA: Historicana, 2008, p. 212; Drawing Against National Socialism and Terror, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, 2008, pp. 286-287; Artur Szyk: Dziedzictwo polsko-zydowskiego artysty [The Legacy of Polish-Jewish Artist], Krakow, Stradomskie Centrum Dialogu, 2011, p. 114; Artur Szyk: Man of Dialogue [Polish and English editions], Centrum Dialogu, Lodz, 2011, p. 42.