Art

A typically incisive and impactful Vicky cartoon, showing WSC as Groucho, Brendan Bracken as Harpo, and Lord Beaverbrook as Chico. The cartoon was produced ahead of the July 1945 general election, though was apparently unpublished until its appearance, with minor changes, in the Daily News on 29 November 1945. It was a reprise of a gag Vicky used in the News Chronicle in March 1943, when Hitler, Goebbels, and Goering were the targets "No one intrigued harder [than Brendan Bracken] to get Winston into Downing Street, for [he] revelled in the role of brash, tough, cynical, political 'fixer'. Sworn of the privy council in June 1940 (despite royal doubts), he moved into no. 10 so as to be always on hand for 'the Boss'. Their midnight bouts of wild talk and hard drinking (often with Lord Beaverbrook) were grist to the mill of Churchill's critics, yet even they could never decide whether Bracken was evil genius or court jester" (ODNB). Victor Weisz (1913-1966) was born in Berlin to Hungarian-Jewish parents. As a precocious 15-year-old, he caricatured Hitler for the Berlin daily 12 Uhr Blatt. Following the Reichstag fire, he was hounded out of Germany by the Gestapo and fled to England. In London he purposely soaked up British history and culture and established himself as one of the outstanding cartoonists of the day. Provenance: the collection of Steve Forbes. Pen and ink drawing with wash on board (358 x 515 mm); some pencil underdrawing, touches of correction with white gouache. Signed by Vicky in the image lower right, and below the border in pencil "General Election, June, 1945". A few light marks otherwise in excellent condition.