Page 19 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. Artur Szyk, Man of Dialogue.

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W WASHINGTON AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS
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Having finished the Statute, Artur Szyk continued creating
great historical works. N D T H E L E A G U E O F N A T I O N S 1 19 BIOGRAPHY
While still in Paris, in 1929, the artist began working on
a series of miniatures showing events from the history of the
United States. He completed 38 works which make up a
mosaic of historic and symbolic images. The main hero of
the cycle is the president George Washington, portrayed by
Szyk both as a statesman, a military leader, the father of the
nation, but also as an ordinary citizen. The American cycle
also features Poles who supported the independence
aspirations of America. Next to the U.S. president, Tadeusz
Kosciuszko and Kazimierz Pulaski appear. Szyk's works were
exhibited in 1931 at the International Colonial Exhibition in
Paris, and a year later – at the two hundredth anniversary of
George Washington's birth – reproductions were published
George Washington with his soldiers from
as an exclusive collector's edition. In 1935, the Polish the cycle Washington and his times, 1930
government bought the American cycle and during a visit to
the U.S. the Polish President Ignacy Moscicki donated it on
behalf of the Polish nation to Franklin Roosevelt. The works
hung in the White House until 1941, when they were
transferred to the Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park. In 1931, Artur Szyk visited Geneva
at the invitation of the League of
Nations and began illustrating the
Covenant of the League of Nations.
These works show both the evil that
war brings and the hope for peaceful
coexistence of different races and
nations.

As he explained, "This is a work−
prayer which I dedicate to my brothers –
soldiers of different nations with an
appeal their innocent blood, this
supreme sacrifice, was not shed in
vain.". However, The League of Nations
disapponted the artist and he never
returned to his cycle.
The League of Nations pact, 1931