1944.01.02 “Dawn comes up like Thunder"
by Harry Murphy
12 x 14 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
The collector received the art, from the artist, on January 25, 1944. “Dawn comes up like Thunder” is the published title.
There is a Harry Daniel Murphy (1880-1973) who was a cartoonist in Portland, Oregon and then in Chicago. There is a May 1944 newspaper report (in the San Diego Union) of a cartoonist named Harry Murphy being in San Diego because he was doing a cartoon benefit. They do not appear to be the same person, to me, because the art styles and signatures are quite different. None of the scant biographical information on Harry Daniel Murphy includes reference to San Diego or the Union. I could be wrong.
The Axis was being pressed at the end of 1943. Two multinational Allied conferences in November took up the next stages of the war (in Cairo, for the Pacfic, and then in Tehran, at which the June 1944 invasion of the mainland through Europe was planned). Italy and Mussolini had already succumbed, and the Allies had been moving up from the south and were knock at Rome’s door.
Happy New Year, Axis.
