The Mona Lisa of the Kremlin

This drawing was made in response to a strategy meeting held between the Big Three Allied leaders during the Second World War: Josef Stalin (the Soviet Union), Franklin D. Roosevelt (the United States), and Winston Churchill (the United Kingdom). It was the first of two conferences, and was held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran, Iran, from 28 November to 1 December 1943. Churchill and Roosevelt are pictured standing below a portrait of Stalin in an ornate gilt frame. In the caption Churchill asks Roosevelt: "Would you say it was painted before or after Tehran?". The main aim of the conference was to secure cooperation from the Soviet Union in defeating Germany. Stalin's complicity was not without its conditions, and he dominated the conference with a list of demands.

Norman Lindsay first joined 'The Bulletin' in 1901, and worked as a political cartoonist for over 50 years from 1901-1909, 1910-1923, and again between 1932 and 1958. For most of that time, Lindsay produced a drawing for each week's edition. The artist's staunch nationalist views found the perfect forum in this publication. This work reveals Lindsay's classical training with its art historical reference to Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa', painted in the early 16th century, which suggests Australia's view of Stalin's role in the Tehran conference being conspiratorial and duplicitous. This work appeared on the front cover of 'The Bulletin' (Sydney) on 26 January 1944.