The talented Danish artist Herluf Bidstrup (1912–1988) gained fame during his lifetime but soon faded into obscurity. At the height of his career, his immense popularity in the Soviet Union led not only to honorable mentions in Russian literature but also to the publication of numerous collections of his works. Bidstrup received many awards in the USSR, including the Lenin Peace Prize and the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.
In the West, however, attitudes toward him were more cautious. Bidstrup skillfully and naturally exposed to the public eye what bourgeois society preferred to ignore. An outspoken anti-fascist, he had been publishing humorous drawings since 1935, but he truly found his platform in the underground (and illegal) newspaper Land og Folk, an organ of the Danish Communist Party, which he joined in 1943. Although his work was also appreciated and published in East Germany, his overt political stance severely limited what could be printed elsewhere.
This even affected his career at home, since Denmark was economically dependent on Nazi Germany at the time. Bidstrup himself believed that his work was best represented in the Soviet press—not only before and during the Second World War, but also after its end.
In 1952, as part of a Danish delegation, Bidstrup traveled to the USSR for the first time, where he was warmly received. His popularity among Soviet readers was largely due to his friendship with TASS journalist Mikhail Kosov, who compiled and translated most of Bidstrup’s albums and later wrote his biography. In a 1953 letter to Kosov, Bidstrup remarked that all the Soviet anthologies they had prepared together were “a hundred times better than the collections published elsewhere… in the German version. I am becoming more and more a harmless humorist and a completely toothless satirist.”
In some ways, Bidstrup can be compared to his contemporary, French artist Jean Effel (also beloved in the Soviet Union). Both were committed communists whose work confronted social injustice and inequality. Yet artists are rarely remembered for their “social conscience.” It is their sharp eye for everyday details and sense of humor that allows their works to endure for decades, continuing to move and amuse audiences long after their time.
Another legacy was the charming animated film The Bench (1967), created by Soviet director Lev Atamanov and his colleagues at Soyuzmultfilm in collaboration with Bidstrup during one of his many visits to the USSR. In 1970, the animated film We Can Do It was released.
Both Soviet authorities and ordinary citizens were captivated by the Danish cartoonist’s talent. Today Bidstrup is almost forgotten—except by those who still carry the torch for his caricatures and continue to publish new collections. Over his lifetime, he produced around five thousand works.
