Lo, the poor Indian! whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud Science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk or milky way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv'n,
Behind the cloud-topped hill, an humbler heav'n.
—Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man
In yesterday's post, two Peter Arno originals hung on a wall, but only one was discussed. Today it's time to look at the other one. The framed cartoon art hanging below the light switch was published in 1966, dating it to relatively late in the artist's career. It appeared in the New Yorker and depicts unhappy native Americans huddling before a small fire. The caption reads, "Lo, the poor us!"
This cartoon is unusual for Arno in that it uses word play derived from a literary source. One can speculate that it is the sort of joke that might have been created for him by a gag writer.
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| "Lo, the poor us!" Peter Arno, The New Yorker, February 26, 1966, page 32 |
Wouldn't you know it? Peter Arno: The Mad, Mad World of The New Yorker's Greatest Cartoonist by Michael Maslin has hit the bookstalls. I've made it through the prologue.
More Arno links:
Peter Arno in April's Vanity Fair.
Peter Arno in the March 29 Wall Street Journal article.
Peter Arno posts here on Attempted Bloggery.
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