Potsdam Meeting

William H. Johnson, Potsdam Meeting, ca. 1945, oil on paperboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.655
Copied William H. Johnson, Potsdam Meeting, ca. 1945, oil on paperboard, 37 1⁄2 x 28 1⁄2 in. (95.4 x 72.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Harmon Foundation, 1967.59.655

Artwork Details

Title
Potsdam Meeting
Artist
Date
ca. 1945
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
37 1⁄2 x 28 1⁄2 in. (95.4 x 72.4 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the Harmon Foundation
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on paperboard
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure group
  • History — United States — Potsdam Conference
  • Portrait male — Stalin, Joseph — full length
  • Object — other — flag
  • Portrait male — Atlee, Clement — full length
  • Portrait male — Truman, Harry — full length
Object Number
1967.59.655
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1967.59.655

Artwork Description

Johnson presented the image of three world leaders--U.S. President Harry Truman (center), Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin (right), and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee (left) --joining hands in victory and standing on a Nazi flag. The three met in Potsdam, Germany, in July and early August 1945 to discuss the terms of the peace after Germany's surrender on May 8. When leaders of the three countries had met in Yalta the previous February, they began laying out terms of a postwar peace. But the cast of characters at Potsdam was new. Truman replaced Franklin Roosevelt, who had died in April, and Attlee replaced Churchill midway through the meeting when the results of his recent landslide victory were announced. But much was still at stake. Although Germany had surrendered, the conflict in Asia continued. Just days after the Potsdam meeting, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. After a second bomb decimated Nagasaki, the war in the Pacific ended.

Exhibitions

Media - 1967.59.1146 - SAAM-1967.59.1146_2 - 141130
Fighters for Freedom: William H. Johnson Picturing Justice
March 8, 2024–September 10, 2024
Smithsonian American Art Museum
William H. Johnson's Fighters for Freedom series from the mid-1940s is a tribute to African American activists, scientists, teachers, and performers as well as international leaders working to bring peace to the world.