Le Livre d’Esther.

SZYK, ARTHUR.

H. Piazza

Paris

(1926)

One of 175 numbered copies in this state. Exquisite color plates, calligraphy and many historiated initials and head- and tail-pieces by Szyk. Text in Hebrew and French. With additional suite of plates in black-and-white at end of text.

Arthur Szyk’s vibrant illustrations depict the story of Purim in an Assyrian context, consistent with contemporary Parisan art forms. J. P. Ansell notes that as with so many of Szyk’s works, Le Livre d’Esther is a “political statement on anti-Semitism: In the story, the beautiful Queen Esther saves her co-religionists from persecution by a government official; for Szyk and his contemporaries, the story was an allegorical commentary on the state of religious freedom in Poland.” See Arthur Szyk: Artist, Jew, Pole (2004) pp. 33-7; see also I. Ungar, Justice Illuminated: The Art of Arthur Szyk (1998) p. 74.