Posted 10 years ago
shadv2
(3 items)
In this print there is Starling, Churchill, Roosevelt, chasing Adolf Hitler Petain? and Hirohito. Im unaware of its origin or artist. But this print intrigues me as the style is out of character. Strangely Churchill hit Petain with an arrow?
The stylistic choice of portrayal was likely made in reference to the Allied conference in Tehran in 1943.
There was probably an existing image (a Persian miniature or manuscript) which was modified with the Allied and Axis leaders' faces, and the original image probably included the archer and his target.
Forgot to add that Italy had already surrendered earlier in 1943, so Petain appears instead of Mussolini.
Yes we along them lines of thinking, any idea of the artist?
Found info.
This blog cites the Hoover Institute, saying the Iranian government commissioned the work as gifts for the Allied leaders: http://deadpresidentsdaily.blogspot.ca/2007/11/november-30-1943-fdr-at-tehran.html
This other blog has a different explanation. It speaks of two works: 1) a six postcard booklet commissioned by the London propaganda office, and 2) your image... "Its designer was not Kem, but Musavver al-Molk from Isfahan, and its commissioner the son of the former Kerman and Mashhad consul Sir Percy Spikes, who came to the mountains above Isfahan to prepare the Bakhtiari tribes against an eventual German invasion. The verses running around the edges recount how Rustam, personified by Churchill in the poster, fits eagle’s feathers on his arrow and shoots them on his enemies." From http://riowang.blogspot.ca/2013/02/book-of-kings.html
(By the way, your image shows what appears on my screen as French bleu-blanc-rouge colors on the black horse, while the two blogs show Italian flag colors and identify the unseated rider as Mussolini.)
Cool picture !! Must be quite rare ;-)
Wow, I have seen hundreds of these paintings, never this one... Very interesting.