Arthur Szyk was a Polish-born Jewish artist who worked primarily as a book illustrator and political artist throughout his career. Arthur Szyk was born into a prosperous middle-class Jewish family in Łódź, in the part of Poland under Russian rule in the 19th century. An acculturated Polish Jew, Szyk always proudly regarded himself both as a Pole and a Jew. From 1921, he lived and created his works mainly in France and Poland; in 1937 he moved to the United Kingdom. In 1940, he settled permanently in the United States, and was granted American citizenship in 1948.