Description:

Original artwork by artist/photographer Hugo Steccati (1916-2004) for the 'Impossible Interview' series featured in Vanity Fair magazine. Steccati was a California artist attending California College of the Arts, and obtained his B.A. degree in 1938, shortly after graduation he started doing caricatures for San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, and is listed in the Edan Hughes book 'Artists in California 1786-1940', he was also exhibited by the San Francisco Art Association in 1940. Shortly after, he served as a photographer for the U.S. Navy during WWII, then becoming an acclaimed full time photographer after the war. The Vanity Fair series, which spanned several years in the 1930's and also revived later, was called 'Impossible Interviews', and portrayed two contemporary figures from opposite ends of the social, ideological, political or artistic spectrum; personalities who in reality, would not likely have ever met. The illustrations were created by multiple contemporary artists, most famously Miguel Covarrubia, and were accompanied with brief texts by Vanity Fair contributing writer Corey Ford under the pseudonym John Riddell, and provided humorous hypothetical dialogues (interviews) between two controversial characters. Other polar opposites featured in the 'Impossible Interviews' series included John D. Rockefeller Sr. vs. Joseph Stalin (April 1932), Queen Marie of Romania vs. Mae West (June 1932), Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes vs. Al Capone (October 1932) and Sigmund Freud vs. Jean Harlow (May 1935). This original unsigned 1938 multi-medium art in pencil, pen, layered paints, and sprays applied to poster board, 14.5 in. x 19.5 in., was created to represent a fictional interview between Adolf Hitler and French mayor Leon Meyer, showing caricatures of both men, Hitler depicted with yellow-green skin, in his brown shirt uniform and Nazi armband standing beside Meyer wearing a stylized French armband. The bottom margin is captioned ‘Impossible Interview Meyer Versus Hitler'. A fascinating piece, as of course this ‘interview' never occurred, and was released only for humor. Meyer was a famous Jewish French politician who served as Mayor of Le Havre from 1919-1941, and like Hitler was anti-union and anti-communist. Though Meyer seemed to share some of Hitler's political views, and of course being Jewish he did not, nor could not, support him. Meyer subsequently joined the French Resistance, resulting in his spending 17 months in concentration camps. At the bottom right is a small paper label glued to the matting, with a sarcastic note reading: ‘NOTICE -Because of the strict German censorship, this inter-view was not permitted to be made public', and on the lower left margin also to the matting, is written in pencil, 'Hugo Steccati '38' Some spotting throughout and toning to the margins. Art board is attached to the matting from the rear with modern brown tape, to the verso, original period tape is in place showing the original position of it's mounting, which has been intentionally separated, most likely from a previous owner looking for a signature hidden behind the areas covered by the matt. Overall, very good and unusual.

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May 4, 2025 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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