Framed Rare Wartime LITHOGRAPH CARICATURE of “The Big Six”

Description

FDR, Stalin, Mussolini, Hirohito and, of course, Winston Churchill play an intense game of dominoes in this marvelously executed caricature by the Cuban-born artist Conrado W. Massaguer. Titled “Doble Nueve” (”Double Nines”), this beautifully produced, large-format, full-color lithograph is a truly singular wartime rarity. Printed in Havana, Cuba by Compania Litografica de la Habana, the lithograph measures 19 x 22 inches and is signed, dated and inscribed by the artist in pencil on the lower white margin: “To my friend H.J. Wandless, with my best wishes, Conrado, La Habana 1944.” The verso is also hand-dated “7/6/1944,” one month post D-Day.

The periphery of the paper is quite water-stained but the image has been spared. It is bright and clean. The print has been archivally matted and exuberantly framed (26 x 30 inches overall)

CONRADO WALTER MASSAGEUR (1889-1965) was born in Cárdenas, Cuba. A self-taught artist, he published his works in Yucatan newspapers and magazines before moving to Havana in 1908, where he became a baseball cartoonist for the newspaper El Mundo and opened his own advertising agency. Massaguer moved to New York during the 1920s, where he contributed illustrations to Life, The New Yorker, Collier’s, Vanity Fair, Red Book, Cosmopolitan and Town & Country, among others.