Catalogue information

LastDodo number
5929441
Area
Drawings / paintings
Title
At the Hotel de la Paix
Art object
Art Movement / style
Material
Technique used
Colouring
Dimensions
34 x 25 cm
Series / hero
Collection / set
Number
Addition to number
Year
1935
Language
Details
Original political cartoon on board in pen and ink published in Punch magazine, 1935, shows the angel of peace in the guise of a chambermaid reading a note pinned to a hotel door from Mussolini with instructions to ‘Call at 6. Polish up spurs’, to which she responds: ‘Deary me! Does this mean the nice Italian gentleman is going to leave us?’. It had been clear for a time that the Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini had ambitions with regard to Abyssinia (Ethiopia). On June 24-25 1935 the British Minister for League Affairs, Anthony Eden, visited Rome and offered a number of concessions to Mussolini in Ethiopia, including giving Italy a strip of British Somaliland. The Italian ‘duce’ rejected the offers as inadequate to meet Italian demands. He is therefore leaving the peace hotel, the peaceful nations, and ‘polish up spurs’ indicates he is preparing for war. Italy invaded Abyssinia a few months later in October 1935. Framed and mounted for an overall size of 54 x 44 cm, image size 34 x 25 cm, signed lower left. Appeared in Punch on 3 July 1935, in excellent condition.