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This item will be coming to me shortly; here's the backstory.
Clifford Berryman was a well-known (and Pulitzer Prize-winning) editorial cartoonist, starting with the Washington Post in the late 19th century, and then continuing on with the dominant Washington Evening Star for a number of decades. One of his most famous cartoons was entitled "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," depicting an event that allegedly occurred when then-President Theodore Roosevelt declined to shoot a bear cub. Berryman's depiction of the cub was so popular, he began to use it in more cartoons. This, so legend has it, was one of the principal origins of the teddy bear. Berryman would continue to use the bear as his mascot for the rest of his career.
Berryman also had a wide circle of friends, both in and out of Washington. I have a number of gag cartoons he did teasing a friend of his, Fred Mann; a few of those have the Bear as well. This cartoon, which is specifically dated, is more or less a get-well card to General George V. Strong, who had just come back from a fact-finding mission to the UK (during the Blitz). Strong would later head up U.S. Army Intelligence during the war. As you can see, Berryman is letting the Bear speak for him.
One of the signatures of Berryman's style was to draw hyper-realistic heads, which can, at times, clash with the sketchy nature of the rest of the cartoon. The presence of the Bear does soften that.
The bottle of "'aig and 'aig" on the side-table is a reference to Haig and Haig, then as now a well-known brand of whisky. Medicinal whisky, or a souvenir of his trip?
Clifford Berryman was a well-known (and Pulitzer Prize-winning) editorial cartoonist, starting with the Washington Post in the late 19th century, and then continuing on with the dominant Washington Evening Star for a number of decades. One of his most famous cartoons was entitled "Drawing the Line in Mississippi," depicting an event that allegedly occurred when then-President Theodore Roosevelt declined to shoot a bear cub. Berryman's depiction of the cub was so popular, he began to use it in more cartoons. This, so legend has it, was one of the principal origins of the teddy bear. Berryman would continue to use the bear as his mascot for the rest of his career.
Berryman also had a wide circle of friends, both in and out of Washington. I have a number of gag cartoons he did teasing a friend of his, Fred Mann; a few of those have the Bear as well. This cartoon, which is specifically dated, is more or less a get-well card to General George V. Strong, who had just come back from a fact-finding mission to the UK (during the Blitz). Strong would later head up U.S. Army Intelligence during the war. As you can see, Berryman is letting the Bear speak for him.
One of the signatures of Berryman's style was to draw hyper-realistic heads, which can, at times, clash with the sketchy nature of the rest of the cartoon. The presence of the Bear does soften that.
The bottle of "'aig and 'aig" on the side-table is a reference to Haig and Haig, then as now a well-known brand of whisky. Medicinal whisky, or a souvenir of his trip?
Category All / All
Species Bear (Other)
Size 820 x 1058px
File Size 1.4 MB
Comments