Kultur in Cartoons: With accompanying notes by well-known English writersRaemaekers, Louis
History
Kultur in Cartoons: With accompanying notes by well-known English writers
Raemaekers, Louis
World War, 1914-1918 -- Caricatures and cartoons
The “Louisville Herald” finds it “impossible to do justice to these
remarkable drawings, this terrific gallery, impossible to estimate at
this distance the power and pressure of the indictment,” while the
“Baltimore Sun” goes so far as to claim that “no orator in any tongue
has so stirred the human soul to unspeakable pity and implacable wrath
as this Dutch artist in the universal language which his pencil knows
how to speak. Those who have forgotten the _Lusitania_ and the
innumerable tragedies in Belgium should avoid Raemaekers. They who look
at his work can never forget, can never wholly forgive.”
The “Washington Star” thinks that his cartoons should not be taken
merely as dealing with events of the conflict, “but with principles.”
The writer proceeds: “To Germany and to Austria is upheld a mirror in
which are reflected those crimes for which neither will be able to make
full redress. There is no touch of vulgarity or hatred in his work, save
that which comes from righteous indignation against foul crimes and the
vulgarity of the thing itself.”
In appraising the value of Raemaekers’ cartoons purely as political
documents, as historic records of crimes and barbarities which the
civilized world must not be permitted to forget lest the horrors of the
past three years descend upon us again, their purely artistic appeal is
frequently ignored or forgotten, but not always. “Raemaekers is an
artist,” says the “Boston Globe.” “He tells his story simply, eliminates
all unnecessary detail, knows the dramatic value of light and shade, and
draws a single figure cartoon with as much impressive suggestiveness as
he does a crowd.” The “Providence Journal” acclaims him as a great
artist to whose hand has been given the touch of immortality. “Like many
geniuses,” continues the “Journal,” “this Dutch artist awaited the
occasion in human affairs to awaken the power which he may not even have
been aware of possessing. It took a titanic force to stir his
conscience and that conscience, once stirred, leaped into aspiring
activity to the service of mankind.” Particular stress is laid by the
“Boston Transcript” on the artistic merit of the drawings. Comparing him
to Honoré Daumier, the great French cartoonist of the Franco-Prussian
War, the “Post” is of opinion that Raemaekers is the one artistic
personality whose genius has been developed by the stimulus of the war.
“If the measure of the influence wielded by a cartoonist is the extent
and intensity of emotion aroused by his work, then possibly there has
never been a cartoonist in the history of the world who can have
compared with Raemaekers. The inspiration of his pictorial polemics is a
hearty and profound and righteous indignation, a motive which is of
first-rate artistic worth, and which is shared by all the civilized
world. What strikes the mind in looking upon these cartoons is the
Dantesque quality of the artist’s passion and imagination.” The
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account