The Futurist Urban Dynamic

An interesting challenge for the 20th century illustrator - how do you show the dynamic of the Electrical City - the City of Wireless Signals and flying machines. How to show the City of the Futurists ?

This astonishing drawing by H.M.Bateman flirts with the Futurist concept of the street penetrating the House (Boccioni for instance) . Whenever Futurism appears in English cartoons, it is incomprehensible whirling shapes produced by long haired foreigners. Bateman here finds an exciting way of distorting the reality of viewing the street from the Balcony. The point of the cartoon is clearly the tryst between the woman on the balcony and the officer leading his troops - with all the ensuing seismic effects on the neighbours, cats and street. The impact of Love. And Boccioni.