Signed Ink Drawing

Pulitzer prize-winning editorial cartoonist with the "Chicago Tribune" (1903-45). Signed ink drawing, 14¼" X 18", n.p., 1929. Very good. Slightest bit of edgewear and mild soiling. Labeled "Putting their Sincerity to the Test" by McCutcheon along the lower margin, this single-panel cartoon depicts President Herbert Hoover full length, front and center and facing right, wonderfully executed as he stands in front of a circular table. With his arms he presents a large scroll laid out on this table, which reads in full: "Proper defense requires military strength relative to that of other nations. We will reduce our strength in proportion to any other. It remains for the others to say how low they will go. It cannot be too low for us. Hoover's Armistic Day address." Hoover is saying, "There! Now let's see if you're really sincere in wanting to give your tax payers some relief from their armament burdens." Behind Hoover, at the left of the drawing, a sketchy figure of a worried-looking Uncle Sam sits astride huge sacks of money, labeled "U.S. Resources." In front of Hoover, at the right of the drawing, stand six attentive listeners: A portly "Britain" in Edwardian getup sports a Union Jack vest, while alongside him a shadowy figure is hunched by the huge sack he hoists, labeled "British Armament Burden on the Tax Payer"; "France" in military uniform scratches his bewhiskered chin, while a similar hunched figure strains under a sack labeled "French Naval Burden on the Tax Payers"; behind these figures stand "Japan" in military uniform (a "Japanese Burden" sack just visible at his side) and "Italy" in military uniform (sack at his side). On November 11, 1929, Hoover had expressed these Armistice Day sentiments in a speech given before the Annual Convention of the Mississippi Valley Association. This drawing, which McCutcheon dates "Nov. 13" at lower left, is a superb and provocative example of McCutcheon's ability to humanize political concepts, to make abstract notions concrete. And artistically, this rendering of Hoover is among his very best. Signed simply "McCutcheon" at lower right, as usual.