David Low (cartoonist)
Sir David Low | |
---|---|
Born | Dunedin, New Zealand | 7 April 1891
Died | 19 September 1963 London, England | (aged 72)
Sir David Alexander Cecil Low (7 April 1891 – 19 September 1963) was a New Zealand
Low was born and educated in New Zealand. His first work was published when he was only 11 years old. His professional career began at
Biography
Early life
The son of chemist David Brown Low and Jane Caroline Flanagan, David Low was born in Dunedin on 7 April 1891, and attended primary school there. His family later moved to Christchurch, where Low briefly attended Christchurch Boys' High School. However following the death of his eldest brother, Low was taken out of school, as his parents believed that he had been weakened by over studying. Low's first cartoon was published in 1902, when he was 11 years old, a three-picture strip in the British comic Big Budget.[1]
Early career
Low began his career as a professional cartoonist with the Canterbury Times in 1910. In 1911 he moved to Sydney, Australia to join The Bulletin. A large format collection of some 350 pieces for those papers was published in the album Caricatures by Low 1915.[2] During his employment at The Bulletin, Low became well known for a 1916 cartoon satirising Billy Hughes, then the Prime Minister of Australia, entitled The Imperial Conference. After that success, Low published many cartoons depicting Hughes' forceful and eccentric personality. Hughes was not impressed and apparently called Low a "bastard" to his face.[3] A collection of Low's cartoons of Hughes entitled The Billy Book, which he published in 1918, brought Low to the notice of Henry Cadbury, part-owner of The Star. In 1919 Cadbury offered Low a job with the Star, which Low promptly accepted.
Move to England
From 1919 to 1927 Low worked at the London Star, which sympathised with his moderately left-wing views. In 1927, he accepted an invitation from
Second World War
His works are featured in many British history textbooks. On 1 September, the Germans invaded Poland from the west and, on 17 September, the Soviets invaded from the east. Low depicted these events in one of his most famous cartoons, Rendezvous, first published in the Evening Standard on 20 September 1939.[8] It satirises the cynicism at the heart of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, showing Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin bowing politely across the dead body of Poland and greeting each other respectively as "The scum of the earth, I believe?" and "The bloody assassin of the workers, I presume?". The phrasing is based on that supposedly used by Henry Morton Stanley at his meeting with David Livingstone in 1871, and the dictators are shown raising their hats to one another in greeting similarly to the two explorers in artistic reconstructions of that earlier meeting. The work has been parodied by several other cartoonists.[9]
The Harmony Boys of 2 May 1940[10] depicts Hitler, Stalin, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and Spanish dictator Francisco Franco "harmonizing" and getting along quite well. When this cartoon was published, the German invasion of the Soviet Union was still more than a year in the future.
His satirical works met much criticism in the British public eye. The British press called him a "war monger," and many citizens felt disdain for his depictions of appeasement.[citation needed]
Remainder of career
Low remained in the United Kingdom for the rest of his career. He left the Evening Standard in 1950. That same year, he moved to the
Low received a
A blue plaque commemorates Low at 33 Melbury Court, Kensington.[14]
Personal life
Low married Madeline Grieve Kenning of Auckland on 7 June 1920 in
Collections
United Kingdom
- British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent[1]
- Political Cartoon Gallery, 16 Lower Richmond Road, London SW15 1JP - a collection of Low's original cartoons from the Evening Standard and The Manchester Guardian, as well as original caricatures from his New Statesman series.
Australia Low's cartoons continued to appear in Australian papers after his move to England. See List of David Low's Cartoons in Australian Newspapers.
- National Library of Australia:
- The Pictures Collection Archived 19 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine holds 57 original drawings and 22 photo-lithographs individually catalogued with a number digitised (including drawings relating to The Billy Book)
- The Newspapers Collection[permanent dead link] holds many thousands of Low's cartoons, although none are digitised at present.
Selected works
- Low's Annual (1908)
- Caricatures by Low (1915)
- The Billy Book (1918)
- Sketches by Low (1926)
- Lions and Lambs (1928)
- H.G. Wells(1930), illustrator; German edition, Der Diktator (P. Zsolnay, 1931)
- Low's Russian Sketchbook (1932)
- Low & Terry (1934) with Horace Thorogood
- The Modern Rake's Progress (1934) with Rebecca West
- Low Again (1938)
- A Cartoon History of Our Times (1939)
- Europe since Versailles (1940)
- All behind you (1940)[16]
- Europe at War (1941)
- The World at War (1942) [17]
- Years of Wrath: A Cartoon History 1932–45 (1949)
- Low Visibility: A Cartoon History 1945–53 (1953)
- Autobiography (M. Joseph, 1956), 387 pp., LCCN 57-577
- The Fearful Fifties: A History of the Decade (1960)
- Low and the Dictators (2009) by Timothy S. Benson[18]
- David Low Censored (2019) by Timothy S. Benson ISBN 9781999646844Political Cartoon Society
References
- ^ ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 3 December 2016.
- ^ "A Book of Caricatures". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). No. 11, 403. New South Wales, Australia. 27 November 1915. p. 6. Retrieved 31 December 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Air raid, Sir! Take cover!". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 22 September 2013.
- . Retrieved 27 November 2022.
- ^ Gunther, John (1940). Inside Europe. New York: Harper & Brothers. p. 289.
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ Exhibition celebrates the 20th Century's greatest cartoonist, BBC Worldwide Press Releases. Retrieved on 14 October 2008.
- ^ "LSE2692 - Rendezvous". British Cartoon Archive. University of Kent. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
- ^ O'Connell, John [@jdpoc] (19 September 2021). "THIS DAY in 1939, Punch [SIC] published this iconic David Low cartoon, 'Rendezvous', on the occasion of the Nazi-Soviet pact. It has been parodied often, but never bettered" (Tweet) – via Twitter. et seq.
- ^ "Study of Propaganda & War – History:Introduction". University of Kent. Archived from the original on 30 May 2009. Retrieved 26 July 2010.
- ^ "No. 42683". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 June 1962. p. 4308.
- ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
- ^ "Obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
- ^ "LOW, SIR DAVID (1891–1963)". English Heritage. Retrieved 1 July 2012.
- ^ English heritage Official Site Retrieved 28 February 2022
- ^ "Search Results".
- ^ "Vintage Penguin the World at War by David Low Cartoons | #272810290".
- ISBN 978-09549-0087-8. Retrieved 23 November 2017 – via Political Cartoon Gallery.
External links
- Online biography with selected cartoons
- Political cartoons by David Low
- RBKC Virtual Museum – David Low's blue plaque
- Biography of David Low, at the British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent.
- David Low at Library of Congress, with 40 library catalogue records
- David Low Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.