D. LOW [Artwork:] 'Last Tribute' [to FDR] + book

November 23, 2021

Rare Books, Documents, Photos, and Artwork

Lot 64

D. LOW [Artwork:] 'Last Tribute' [to FDR] + book

Estimate: $700 - $1,000

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About this Lot

Description

FDR - David LOW [Original artwork:] 'Last Tribute' [to FDR] + related book 'Years of Wrath'

Offered for sale by Adam Langlands of 'Shadowrock Rare Books' - for more information please contact him via email at adamlanglands@gmail.com

[Franklin Delano ROOSEVELT (1882-1945). – Sir David LOW (1891-1963, cartoonist).

[Original artwork] ‘Last Tribute’ [first published in the ‘London Evening Standard’ on 16 April 1945]. [U.K.: 13th – 16th April 1945]. Pen and ink on textured paper, signed using white gouache ‘LOW’. (Very light toning and matt-burn, light tape residue to verso). Sheet size: 9 x 10 ½ ins; 229 x 267mm.

Mourning the passing of FDR – an evocative image. ‘On the eve of victory President Roosevelt died, and the British mourned with Americans the loss of a great man described by Churchill as "the greatest American friend we have ever known and the greatest champion of freedom who has ever brought help and comfort from the new world to the old". [Caption for the UK edition of "Years of Wrath" by David Low]

“The British have seldom mourned the death of any of their own leaders as they mourned the death of President Roosevelt on April 13, 1945. The man in the street compared it to the passing of George V and Queen Victoria. Prime Minister Churchill wept as he paid tribute to Mr. Roosevelt on the floor of the House of Commons. It was not only what President Roosevelt had done to help the British in their darkest hours and to bring America into the war. It was the feeling that President Roosevelt died even before his greatest work had begun. Allied armies had all but won the victory. The great task of winning the peace remained.” [written by Quincy Howe, for the US edition of "Years of Wrath" by David Low]

Published: The Evening Standard, London, 16 April 1945; re-printed in D. Low. ‘Years of Wrath A Cartoon History 1931 1945’ (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1946) and (London: Victor Gollancz, 1949). See https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.89514/page/n279/mode/2up.

Low’s work is represented in numerous public collections, including the British Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A; and the British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent (Canterbury). His papers are in the Beinecke Library (Yale University).

[with:]

David LOW. Years of Wrath A cartoon history: 1931-1945 by David Low with a chronology and text by Quincy Howe. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1946. Quarto (10 ¾ x 7 5/8in; 273 x 193mm). Numerous illustrations, all after Low. Original boards (dust-jacket lacking, extremities slightly bumped). First US edition.

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