# Artur Szyk artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/artur-szyk/
Profile generated: 2026-08-24T14:08:41.467Z
Quality: medium confidence, adequate sources

## Artist identity

- Nationality: Polish, American
- Common media: Book illustration, Political illustration and caricature, Painting

## Portrait

![Artur Szyk](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Arthur_Szyk_%281894-1951%29%2C_Portrait_with_pipe_%28c._1946%29%2C_New_Canaan%2C_CT.jpg/1280px-Arthur_Szyk_%281894-1951%29%2C_Portrait_with_pipe_%28c._1946%29%2C_New_Canaan%2C_CT.jpg)
Arthur Szyk · CC BY-SA 4.0
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arthur_Szyk_(1894-1951),_Portrait_with_pipe_(c._1946),_New_Canaan,_CT.jpg

## About Artur Szyk

Artur Szyk (also catalogued as Arthur Szyk; 1894–1951) was a Polish-born Jewish artist who later became an American citizen. Authority records identify him as an illustrator, painter, caricaturist, and political artist. Born in Łódź, he worked principally in France and Poland from the early 1920s, moved to Britain in 1937, and settled in the United States in 1940. Szyk is especially associated with detailed book illustration and politically engaged imagery. His wartime activity is central to his public identity: an IdRef authority record describes him as an American caricaturist known for activism during the Second World War. Collectors consequently encounter his name across several object types, including paintings, political drawings, illustrations, and illustrated publications. Because both Artur and Arthur appear in catalogues, authority identifiers from VIAF, Wikidata, Getty ULAN, and IdRef are useful for consolidating records and distinguishing the artist from similarly named people.

## Common works and media

Works encountered in appraisal and auction contexts may include book illustrations, illustrated publications, political drawings and caricatures, and paintings. The available sources do not establish a complete list of Szyk's techniques, edition practices, or named series, so individual objects should be catalogued according to their documented format and publication or historical context.

## Market and appraisal context

Market comparison should begin by separating paintings from book illustrations, political drawings or caricatures, and illustrated publications. Identification of a specific publication or a documented wartime political context can narrow the relevant comparison set, while the Artur and Arthur name variants should be reconciled when searching catalogues. These distinctions help avoid comparing unlike objects, but they do not establish authorship or value. The collected pack identifies an Appraisily auction-record page yet contains no fetched major-auction-house lot narrative, condition report, provenance statement, edition information, or realized-price detail. Accordingly, this profile provides category-level appraisal context rather than a price prediction or market trend.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine artist-identity research with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. Evidence gaps are disclosed rather than filled by inference.

## Sources

- IdRef: https://www.idref.fr/077122321
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/9968888/
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q711673
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500079362
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Szyk
- Appraisily: https://appraisily.com/artist/artur-szyk/