The Haggadah.

'The book is a masterpiece, one that should increase the happiness of every one of its possessors, who will find new interest and new delight every time he opens its pages' (The Jewish Chronicle).

Arthur Szyk, a Polish Jew, produced works characterised by social and political comment, and in their formal aspect by the rejection of modernism and drawing on the traditions of medieval and renaissance painting, especially illuminated manuscripts from those periods. Unlike most caricaturists, Szyk always showed great attention to the colour effects and details in his works.

Szyk's drawings and paintings became even more politically engaged when Hitler took power in Germany in 1933. Szyk started drawing Führer's caricatures as early as 1933; probably, the first work of the artist directed against the leader of the Third Reich was a drawing of Hitler, made in pencil, in which he was shown as a new pharaoh. These drawings anticipated present great series of Szyk's arts – Haggadah, his magnum opus. Szyk illustrated it in 48 drawings in the years 1932-1938, and the development of the political situation in Germany at that time made him introduce some contemporary elements to it. These referred to, in particular, the parable of the four sons, in which the 'wicked son' was portrayed as a man wearing German clothes, with a Hitler-like moustache. The expression of the series was even stronger in its original version the drawings showed snakes with swastikas, there were also heads of Hermann Göring and Joseph Goebbels.

In 1937, Arthur Szyk went to London to supervise the publication of The Haggadah. However, the artist had to agree to many compromises during the work which lasted three years, including painting over all of the swastikas. It is not clear whether he did it as a result of the pressure by his publisher or the British politicians, who pursued the policy of appeasement in relation to Germany.

Finally, The Haggadah was published in London in late 1940 (and not 1939, which is the date of Szyk's opening words; see Roth); the artist dedicated it to King George VI. The work was widely acclaimed by critics; according to The Times, it was 'worthy to be placed among the most beautiful of books that the hand of man has ever produced'.