Two original drawings depicting World War II-era soldiers from the Eastern Front by Polish-Jewish artist Arthur Szyk (1894-1952), unsigned. Each drawing can be found on either side of a single sheet of drawing paper, loosely matted. The drawing recto, in pencil, brown colored pencil, and ink, depicts a heavily armed Polish soldier; while the pencil drawing verso shows a Soviet soldier standing at ease. Expected wear including even toning, and isolated wrinkles or repaired closed tears. The Soviet soldier side of the paper has some scattered chipped edges and stains, and is taped along the edges in five separate areas to the mat. Else very good to near fine. The sight size of the Polish soldier is 7.875" x 10.375." The actual size of the Soviet soldier is 8.875" x 11.75." The overall size of the mat is 10.875" x 13.875." Provenance: Consigned directly from Arthur Szyk's family.

The drawing recto of the Polish soldier shows him wearing a rogatywka, or soft, peaked, four-pointed cap, bearing a modified Polish coat of arms, or white eagle crest. Szyk has outlined key elements of the drawing--facial features, hands, clothing, arms, and ammunition--in either brown colored pencil or ink, leaving some pencil strokes visible. In this way, one can understand more of Szyk's artistic process, and how he sometimes deviated from his original pencil sketch. For example, Szyk raised the soldier's belt pouch about .25" above its initial placement in the final ink version of the illustration.

The drawing verso shows the head of a Soviet soldier carefully delineated in pencil, with the torso in a more unfinished state. The soldier is wearing an Astrakhan fur hat bearing a single scarlet star.

Arthur Szyk was a talented illustrator who settled permanently in the United States after 1940. He used his technical knowledge of medieval and Renaissance book illumination to create intricate drawings and illustrations commenting on history, spiritual life, and modern politics. Szyk became one of the most important political cartoonists of World War II, and his drawings were published in major magazines and five times made the cover of "Time." Szyk's ruthless depictions of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Emperor Hirohito, Francisco Franco, Joseph Goebbels, Henrich Himmler, Hermann Goering, Hideki Tojo, Pierre Laval, Henri Pétain and other Axis leaders and Axis puppets fueled the American war propaganda machine.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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