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Lot Essay
Throughout his career as an artist, Grosz had a strong liking of erotic subjects. That started as early with his move from Dresden to Berlin in 1912. There were just as few limits imposed on the depiction of scenes of lust, often done with a certain humour, as on that of sex and murder scenes, where pleasure turns into aggression and eroticism is combined with brutality. In his art Grosz goes to the limits of what is possible in identifying with sex and violence, sparing the beholder no detail of what is taking place.
In the present lot Grosz makes a caricature of his brother-in-law, Otto Schmalhausen, who was married to Lotte, the sister of Grosz' wife Eva. The sisters repeatedly sat as single models for the painter and were also used by him to depict naked playmates. The present lot shows the man kneeling before an imaginary altar, worshipping the naked girls in their various voluptuous position, emphasizing his unfulfilled yearning and despair by hurting his knees in this process as an act of self-chastisement.
The very subject led a few years later to the famous painting 'Rudolf Schlichter', executed by Grosz in 1929 as a large panel with the dimension 190 x 140 cm, showing Grosz' artist friend Rudolf Schlichter in a similar kneeling position on wooden logs, worshipping a woman hanging down from the ceiling in her underwear.
The authenticity of the present lot has been confirmed by Mr. Ralph Jentsch. We kindly thank him for his help in cataloguing this lot.
In the present lot Grosz makes a caricature of his brother-in-law, Otto Schmalhausen, who was married to Lotte, the sister of Grosz' wife Eva. The sisters repeatedly sat as single models for the painter and were also used by him to depict naked playmates. The present lot shows the man kneeling before an imaginary altar, worshipping the naked girls in their various voluptuous position, emphasizing his unfulfilled yearning and despair by hurting his knees in this process as an act of self-chastisement.
The very subject led a few years later to the famous painting 'Rudolf Schlichter', executed by Grosz in 1929 as a large panel with the dimension 190 x 140 cm, showing Grosz' artist friend Rudolf Schlichter in a similar kneeling position on wooden logs, worshipping a woman hanging down from the ceiling in her underwear.
The authenticity of the present lot has been confirmed by Mr. Ralph Jentsch. We kindly thank him for his help in cataloguing this lot.