"Fools!" said Cyrus, "Do you not know horses fear camels?"
Date1928
Artist
Harvey T. Dunn
(American illustrator, 1884–1952)
Illustration CitationAdvertisement for Duco Paint, in The Saturday Evening Post, November 24, 1928
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions30 × 40 in. (76.2 × 101.6 cm)
frame: 35 x 45 in. (88.9 x 114.3 cm)
frame: 35 x 45 in. (88.9 x 114.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co., Inc., 1989
Object number1989-119
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextIn this advertisement for Du Pont’s Duco paint, Harvey Dunn imagines Cyrus the Great of Persia before his victory over Croesus of Lydia in 546 BCE. Depicted near the center of the composition, Cyrus calmly assures his advisers that their camel-mounted troops will rout the Lydian cavalry by terrifying their horses. The accompanying text used Cyrus’s military intelligence to promote Duco’s high quality, itself the result of knowledge gained through years of research: “Knowledge won for Cyrus before the gates Sardis. He first established facts, then used them with tremendous effect. In industry, knowledge wins our modern battles – knowledge wrung from endless research and endless experiment. Oxygen waged its ceaseless war upon existing finishes. Then came Duco – created by du Pont – which checkmated forever the evil effects of oxidation…” The opulence of the scene also served as a reminder of the dramatic and enduring colors of Duco paint.
