Posters Artwork Documents

Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse ?

Between 1941 and the war's end - when he was placed in power by the British and the Soviets in substitution for his pro-German father - the government of Shah Mohammed Reza of Iran took to commissioning paintings/illuminations in the traditional Persian style, promoting the Allied cause over the Axis. It is difficult to see how exactly these were employed for propaganda purposes - if at all. Nonetheless, they were commissioned. In this example, the three Allied supreme leaders - Churchill (with cigar), Stalin (with pipe) and FDR (with cigarette), equipped as medieval Persian warriors, trouble the dreams of Shah Hitler. The monkey-like Nazi attendant in the foreground is, presumably, intended to represent Goebbels. Best regards, JR.