Supreme Command. New York, December 1941.

SZYK, Arthur. Supreme Command. Signed and Dated “Arthur Szyk N.Y. Dec. 1941”. Pen and ink on paper. Sheet size: 7 3/8″ x 5″. Image size: 5 1/4″ x 5″.

Szyk has portrayed a smugly pleased Hitler dancing to a guitarist’s rhythm, unaware that he is dancing with the Supreme Commander – Death himself. The skeleton musician is Russian, an apt choice, as the German forces are about to walk into a horrendous snowy quagmire the likes of which the world had never before seen: the battle for the Eastern Front.

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June of 1941 (under what later came to be known as Operation Barbarossa), its original goal was the rapid conquest of the European part of the Soviet Union, west of a line connecting the cities of Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan. The failure of Operation Barbarossa – a fact that was clear by December 1941, when Szyk drew this caricature – was a turning point for the fortunes of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich arguably resulted in the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany. Most significantly of all, Operation Barbarossa opened up the Eastern Front, which ultimately became the biggest theatre of war in human history.

Provenance : Parke Bernet Sale, New York, Mrs. Arthur Szyk, November 27, 1963. Lot 52a.

Publishing History: The American Mercury magazine, February 1942, p. 154, with the cartoon captioned “Generalissimo.”