Enlarge image
Catalogue information
LastDodo number
5716635
Area
Drawings / paintings
Title
Self-caricature, almost complete
Artist
Art object
Art Movement / style
Genre
Material
Technique used
Colouring
Dimensions
36 x 29 cm
Series / hero
Collection / set
Number
Addition to number
Year
1943
Country
Language
Details
Original editorial cartoon on card in pen, ink and crayon, 1943, syndicated to a number of newspapers, shows a human skull holding a palette with various machines of war representing ‘total war’ painting a map of Europe which almost has the form of a skull - the ‘self-caricature’. On 18 February 1943 the German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels delivered a speech at the Berlin Sportpalast to a large but carefully selected audience. In this speech he called for a total war, just as the tide of World War II was turning against Nazi Germany and its Axis allies, with recent defeats at Stalingrad and in the Western Desert Campaign and impending defeat in North Africa. He was also responding to the fact that Churchill and Roosevelt had stated at the recent Casablanca Conference that they would accept only Germany's unconditional surrender, leaving the Nazis with little alternative but to continue the war. Card size 36 x 29 cm (14 x 11.5 inch), image size 32 x 26.5 cm, signed lower right with nine zeros as underline. Caption in pencil in upper border, in good condition.
