Oskar Kokoschka: The Red Egg, painting (1940/41)
Oskar Kokoschka: The Red Egg, painting (1940/41)
Zitat: Ein Brathuhn, zum Verspeisen hergerichtet – die Tschechoslowakei -, fliegt davon und läßt ein rotes Ei auf den Teller fallen. Im Hintergrund brennt Prag, um den Tisch sitzen Mussolini und Hitler mit einem Soldatenhelm aus Papier, unter dem Tisch eine Katze mit Napoleonshut und Kokarde, dahinter der englische Löwe, dessen Schwanz wie ein Pfundzeichen eingerollt ist, auf einem Postament mit der Aufschrift „In Pace Munich“. Das Bild war in seiner Weise prophetisch.
[A roast chicken, prepared to be served – Czechoslovakia – flies away and drops a red egg on the table. Prague burns in the background. Mussolini sits at the table with Hitler, who is wearing a soldier’s helmet made of paper. A cat lies beneath the table with a Napoleonic hat and a cockade. Behind them is the lion of England, its tail twisted into a pound sign, atop a pedestal reading “In Pace Munich”. In its way, the painting was prophetic. (ed. trans.)]
Oskar Kokoschka, My Life, 1971
In the years from 1939 to 1941 while in exile in London, Oskar Kokoschka painted The Red Egg. The painting is among the artist’s political works and portrays the destruction of Czechoslovakia in 1939 following the Munich Agreement.
Strikingly grotesque caricatures of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini give the painting a satirical bent. Hitler’s mouth is wide open and he appears to be shouting a hate-filled tirade from the upper left side of the canvas. Immediately in front of him, a rat is shown scampering over the edge of the table. One might contend that it has just left Hitler’s mouth. Meanwhile, the colossal, puffed up head of Mussolini fills the entire right side of the canvas, echoing the motif of the egg at the centre.
One possible interpretation of the painting is that both France – symbolised by the obese cat – and England – represented by the lion that holds court on two books labelled “In Pace Munich” – are shirking their duties as protecting powers.
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