Orcastra at War

Louis Monza, Orcastra at War, 1943, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, 1986.65.131
Louis Monza, Orcastra at War, 1943, oil on canvas, 2632 in. (65.981.2 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, 1986.65.131

Artwork Details

Title
Orcastra at War
Artist
Date
1943
Dimensions
2632 in. (65.981.2 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure group
  • Performing arts — music — orchestra
  • Allegory — civic — war
  • Portrait male — Roosevelt, Franklin Delano
  • Allegory — other — Molotov, V. M.
Object Number
1986.65.131

Artwork Description

Louis Monza was a passionate pacifist and socialist whose dramatic paintings highlighted the brutality of war. This image shows a grim group of figures huddled together against a backdrop of war-torn buildings. The piano player represents Franklin D. Roosevelt, while the drummer is Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, a key figure in the Bolshevik Revolution and Soviet commissar of foreign affairs in the 1940s (Josephine Gibbs, "Louis Monza, Primitive," Art Digest 18, November 1943, and Lynda Hartigan, Made with Passion, 1990). Monza's painting illustrates the uneasy alliance that brought the Second World War to an end and hints at the events that soon put these players at odds with one another.

Works by this artist (5 items)

John Alexander, The Cake Walk, 1985, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James F. Dicke Family, 2014.11.1
The Cake Walk
Date1985
oil on canvas
Not on view
Welcome to My World
Date1982
watercolor and gouache on heavy off-white paper
Not on view
John Alexander, Conversations with a Spider, 1980, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art ( Museum purchase, William A. Clark Fund), 2020.20.5
Conversations with a Spider
Date1980
oil on canvas
Not on view
John Alexander, Living Your Life in a Goldfish Bowl, 1985, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of United Stationers, Inc., 1995.70.1
Living Your Life in a Goldfish Bowl
Date1985
oil on canvas
Not on view

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mixed media on canvas
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Residual Series: Weak Heart, Strong Lungs
Date2018
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Alexis Rockman, Gymnorhamphichthys bogardusae, 2001, oil on wood, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William and Maria Spears, 2019.58
Gymnorhamphichthys bogardusae
Date2001
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Gregory Amenoff, Swale, 2007, oil on panel, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the James F. Dicke Family, 2014.12.2, © 2007, Gregory Amenoff
Swale
Date2007
oil on panel
Not on view