In an article written by Allison Claire Chang for The National, entitled, “Visualizing the Four Freedoms: FDR’s Fighting Artist, Arthur Szyk,” she discusses the enduring imagery of Arthur Szyk’s Four Freedoms and his legacy as a political cartoonist:

“A Polish-Jewish artist well-known in Europe, Szyk immigrated to New York in late 1940—at the specific request of the British government and the Polish-government-in-exile—to raise awareness and support of the war in Europe in the Western Hemisphere. Drawing on his propaganda experience in the Polish-Soviet war, Szyk launched into action, determined to shake America from its isolationist stance. He set aside his work in fine art and illustration to dedicate himself full-time to the production, exhibition, and mass distribution of his so-called ‘war cartoons’ (in actuality, exquisitely detailed finished works) . . . Though he had every hope that Britain would prevail, Szyk believed that, as the world’s last remaining superpower, the United States represented the world’s best last hope for defeating Nazism.” (Allison Claire Chang, “Visualizing the Four Freedoms: FDR’s Fighting Artist, Arthur Szyk,” The Nation, January 8, 2016)

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in June 1942 the United States Office of War Information was created. The office became an important propaganda agency for the American government promoting the country’s war effort through various media including film, radio broadcasts, print publications, posters and photographs. The present work was commissioned by the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People. Chang continued, “In 1942 he finished a quadriptych illustrating the Four Freedoms. Each watercolor miniature portrays the same medieval knight—perhaps a nod to the timeless nobility of the subject matter—speaking, praying, feasting, and riding off to war on a white horse, his shield emblazoned with the stars and stripes. Like so much of his wartime work, Szyk’s depiction of the Four Freedoms spread across America not as fine art works but as postcards and poster stamps sold to fund the war effort. (Later, the Four Freedoms Foundation, now the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, reproduced them on its annual award.) Tellingly, it is Szyk’s unique interpretation of Freedom from Fear —the knight heading to battle—that makes his ultimate point: Freedom is not a fait accompli but something to be defended and decisively won again and again, occasionally by violent means. Indeed, as Roosevelt said in his December 1940 ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ speech, ‘there can be no reasoning with incendiary bombs.’” (ibid)

“In Szyk’s wartime art, FDR’s Four Freedoms were transformed from eloquent rhetoric to incendiary imagery, visual bombs engineered to awaken American ideals and stir passionate outrage at crimes against humanity. As Roosevelt put it, ‘The future and the safety of our country and of our democracy are overwhelmingly involved in events far beyond our borders’—and thanks in part to Arthur Szyk, the American public was ready to take on the challenge.”
Allison Claire Chang, “Visualizing the Four Freedoms: FDR’s Fighting Artist, Arthur Szyk,” The Nation, January 8, 2016