Snapshots of the Past

Unlucky number – Historic Reproduction

Unlucky number — historic drawing
Unlucky number. Historic drawing from the Historic Print Archive collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

Unlucky number comes to life in this historic drawing, reproduced from the original with every detail intact. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

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Unlucky number

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Titled *Unlucky Number*, this large drawing is built from India ink over pencil, with black crayon and opaque white worked into its grained sheet. It takes Joseph Stalin as its subject, set against the political purges that swept the Soviet Union in the 1930s, when arrests, show trials and executions reached party officials and ordinary citizens alike. The Great Purge peaked between 1936 and 1938, and the ominous title suggests how a single number could come to stand for a person's fate. The record dates the work only to the years between about 1933 and 1939, so its exact moment remains uncertain.

Medium1 drawing : India ink over pencil, with black crayon, and opaque white on white grained drawing 38.3 x 44.3 cm. (sheet)
Notes[between ca. 1933 and ca. 1939]
SubjectsStalin, Joseph,--1879-1953. Political purges--Soviet Union--1930-1940.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,536 × 1,328 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-156228

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