Little is known about the newspaper collages on the rear of some KS portraits.  The Armitt has one (on the rear of Dr Johnston) and has seen two others.  One is on the reverse of the portrait of Willow Rothwell [in poor condition].  The other is on the rear of the portrait of Harry Pierce and is the largest and in the best condition of any of the collages seen so far; we will be investigating this find soon.  Initially it was thought that the collages were by KS, but, thanks to the Sprengel Museum, we now know them to have been made by Ernst Schwitters during his time working for the Norwegian Government in exile in London.  With materials scarce, KS brought them here to Ambleside and used the reverse for his portrait painting.

All the newspaper cuttings refer to the German occupation of Norway and include comments such as "Norway is right for Invasion"  [That is to say an Invasion by the Allies to throw out the Germans.]  They are labelled in mixed English/German (for example Harrow Obserwer) and meticulously inked(?) in black between the edges.
 

The ones we have so far seen cover the German occupation of Norway and date from 1943.  The cuttings were carefully placed, some were labelled with the source newspaper and date and the distinction between cuttings was carefully made in black ink as a frame.

We call the Dr Johnston reverse collage "rots allt!" from the Swedish newspaper at top right of the piece.

The text under one photograph translates as:  "On 9 April, Sweden honoured its brave Norwegian sister nation on the third anniversary [of its occupation by the German Army] at many meetings. The pictures show (??) for Martin Tranmæl at a ceremony held at Vinterpalatset and a stage picture from the performance about Norway at the same place.  See the articles on pages 5 and 9."

Of perhaps more interest is the item, translated from the headlined story as "Tyska kartor över Sverige".  The article is translated at right.  Neutral Sweden had, at times, a strange relationship with Germany during the war.

Another cutting at top left of "rots alt" reads:

Thursday 22^nd July 1943  Norwegian/American paper?

Norway a spot for invasion

According to recent dispatches, Norway is ready for invasion.  A large underground army is prepared to aid the attacking allies and the Norwegians would welcome an invading army with the greatest cordiality.  The invasion may be on the Allied agenda too and may come from north Scotland or Iceland or both.  These pictures show Norway under German occupation – conditions which have aroused the Norwegians to a fighting pitch.

"German maps of Sweden from Finland
A new sensational transit story."

"Scandals are turning up thick and fast in the name of Swedish weakness.  One day a German ”courier” aircraft had to make a forced landing and was found to be carrying soldiers, machine-guns, cameras, etc. – all of which was allowed to be taken out of the country again untouched.

A few days later a new incident.  A railway wagon from a Finnish goods train with its destination no less than Deutsche Wehrmacht, Hamburg, i.e. the German Army,  happened -----------------
---------------- to which the wagon with maps was taken (it contained 5-6 tons of ”paper” according to information provided).  On April 9 it was explained that this was ”nothing special” and that there were no maps of Sweden.  However, TT [The Swedish State News Agency] announced on April 9: 

”The maps gave a clear picture of the country’s [Sweden’s] communications as well as important features such as power stations, including those under construction.”
According to an evening newspaper in Stockholm, the maps were of three types showing railways and roads, telephone and telegraph lines and were very well made indeed.  They included not only towns and villages but also large farms, even telephone subscribers being shown.

The maps were later taken to Stockholm and placed in an area surrounded by barbed wire at Värtans railway station.  It was also forbidden to photograph the maps.  The investigation in Stockholm was headed by CID Superintendent Lundqvist together with customs officers and Army staff personnel.

”The result should be published for the general public in due course through the Board of Information”, says A.T.

”---------waste paper” according to German (illegible) who consider that people should wait with confidence until the official Swedish investigation has been completed.  Unfortunately we cannot be sure of ever hearing the whole truth through the official investigation.  There are some things that Sweden is not considered to feel good about if this matter is thoroughly looked into and people informed of the truth.  We remember how things were with the German letter last autumn. Labour under no delusions about ever getting any enlightenment.  But what can the intention have been with detailed maps of Sweden which were printed in Germany in 1940 and taken to Finland? continued on page 12)

Morgonbladet writes that to utilise Swedish  (?????) is particularly repulsive. Dagens Nyheter considers this statement to be ”pure  ????”

Our grateful thanks to Eric Elliot for his translation of the Swedish cutting.