George Grosz

Billy Wilder, Los Angeles (sale: Christie's, New York, 13th November 1989, lot 21)
Crane Kalman Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner on 22nd March 1991

Beverly Hills, Herbert Palmer Gallery, Georg Grosz Drawings 1920-1940, 1979

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down and attached to the overmount by a backing board along all four edges. There are two artist's pinholes to the centre of the lower edge and centre of the upper edge. The sheet is slightly time-stained, most prominently to the lower left quadrant, and there are some small spots of foxing in places. There is a tear approx. 1cm long (partially obscured by the overmount), to the right part of the upper edge, and there are some minor undulations to the sheet. This work is in overall good condition.
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Throughout his career as an artist, Grosz was always interested in depicting erotic subjects. This started as early as 1912 with his move from Dresden to the metropolis Berlin and culminated in large drawings and watercolours in the late twenties.

The sisters Eva and Lotte Peter, whom George Grosz and Otto Schmalhausen married in 1920, repeatedly sat individually and jointly as models for the artist. This watercolor shows Lotte Schmalhausen, the blond one of the two sisters and a professional photographer in Berlin. She used her plate-back camera to photograph Grosz’s work in his studio, primarily shooting his oil paintings. She also took photographs in 1920 of her sister Eva modelling naked in Grosz’s studio at Nassauische Straße in Berlin.

The artist shows Lotte in this watercolour in a very seductive pose. The model is nearly completely naked, dressed only in flimsy underwear, silk stockings and a hat, her lips made up in scarlet red. Looking away from the observer, her half-nakedness and her innocent expression support her portrayal as a wanton seductress. Grosz models her marble-like body in great detail like a sculptor, emphasizing her voluptuous beauty and grace. Without rendering any aspect of the studio setting, the artist concentrates his work on the carefully executed details of the female figure in the centre, who in this way dominates the picture with her beauty.

Text written by Ralph Jentsch