Signed and Dated "Arthur Szyk, New Canaan, 1950". This is image number 36 from the series of 51 painted to commemorate the life and times of Simon Bolivar, the George Washington of South America.
Simon Bolivar was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1783 and died in 1830. Born into an aristocratic family, his wealth provided him with an excellent education as well as the means to travel extensively abroad. Exposure to European politics and philosophy gave him the passion to return home where he came to be acknowledged as the Liberator of six South American nations. Antonio Jose de Sucre was born in Venezuela 1795 and died in the Barrenco Mountains in 1830. He is one of the most revered compatriots of fellow revolutionary Simon Bolivar. Sucre became Bolivia's first President and the national currency of Ecuador, the sucre, is named in his honor.
Bolivar's vision of a South America liberated from Spain's rule began in the Spring of 1816 with his invasion of his native Venezuela. On August 6, 1824 after eight more years of rebellion and battles, Bolivar and Sucre jointly defeated the Spanish General Jose de Canterac at the Battle of Junin in Peru. This was to be the death rattle for the continental Spanish troops since Sucre's victory at Ayacucho the following December ended forever the domination of Spain in South America. Szyk's illumination successfully portrays the diversity of the fighters at war since Bolivar's army was a rich soup of peasants, farmers, students and aristocrats from Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Peru, and various European nations.
Arthur Szyk began work in 1926 on the life of Simon Bolivar but devoted the years 1948-1951 to the completion of the series of miniatures on his life. This suite of 51 images is a distinguished South American counterpart to Szyk's"Washington and His Times" published in 1932. Szyk tremendously admired both Washington and Bolivar for their contributions to freedom and democracy in the Western Hemisphere and each is enduringly remembered as The Father of their respective countries. It had always been Szyk's intention that the miniatures be gathered into book form, but circumstances prevented this. The year following his death April 14-May 12, 1952, Simon Bolivar and His Times, 51 Miniatures by Arthur Szyk, was exhibited at the Pan American Union in Washington, D.C.
