GEORGE GROSZ (1893-1959)


New York, Downtown Manhattan stamped with signature 'Grosz' (lower right) and bears artist's estate stamp with number '1 112 6' (on the reverse)watercolor on paper19 3/8 x 14 1/2inExecuted in 1933.
|ProvenanceThe artist. Estate of the above.Richard A. Cohn, executor of the artist's estate, New York.Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1985.Accompanying this lot is a certificate of authenticity issued by Ralph Jentsch. The present work will be included in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of works on paper by the artist.George Grosz settled permanently in New York in 1933, when the present work was executed. He had left Berlin and the Weimar Republic to escape the turmoil of Hitler's rise to power but the New York that welcomed him was in the throes of the Great Depression. Grosz was always at home in big cities and was no stranger to a metropolis in economic hardship, despite the current climate he took to New York immediately. The present work illustrates the artist's continued interest in the details of the urban landscape, as well as his fascination with the symbols both of the City and of the Depression.