Lebensraum. Le Future de l’Europe… London, 1939.

SZYK, Arthur. Lebensraum. Le Future de L’Europe tel qu’ils le voient… (The future of Europe as they see it). Signed and Dated, “Arthur Szyk, London 1939”. Watercolor and gouache on paper. Sheet size: 13 1/4″ x 9 7/8″. Image size: 10″ x 7 1/2″. Very Good condition.

This oversized image featuring full figures of Hitler and Stalin is unusually graphic and brilliantly colored. Unlike most of his Hitler parodies, it shows little hint of outright ridicule instead portraying the two dictators in full ferocity standing arm and arm atop a Christian cemetery. Hitler is wearing the clothes of a simple cavalry man, sans medals or military insignia as if to make him more a man of the people. Stalin is positioned directly behind him, feet firmly planted in support.

Lebensraum, German for habitat or living space, was one of Hitler’s major political ideas and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the prime motivation for the expansionist policies of the Third Reich aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population. Under Hitler the term came to signify a specific racist kind of expansionism giving Germans the manifest right to exterminate those “inferior” populations living in land better suited for Aryans. World War II started in 1939 with the German invasion of Poland. The U.S.S.R. also invaded Finland and Poland that year, seizing Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The land grab had begun.

Exhibition History: The Fine Art Society, London, War and “Kultur” in Poland, January, 1940; Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, 29 August 2008–4 January 2009.

Publishing History: Drawing Against National Socialism and Terror, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, 2008, pp. 158-159 as well as on the front cover of the exhibition catalogue; Artur Szyk: Dziedzictwo polsko-zydowskiego artysty [The Legacy of Polish-Jewish Artist], Krakow, Stradomskie Centrum Dialogu, 2011, p. 86; Artur Szyk: Man of Dialogue [Polish and English editions], Centrum Dialogu, Lodz, 2011, p. 28.