Land Urlaub

Ralph Jentsch has confirmed the authenticity of this work.

In 1927, George Grosz and his family spent seven months in France, first in the Pointe Rouge near Marseille and then in Cassis sur Mer. Far from the bustle and unrest of Berlin, Grosz enjoyed the dream life of a painter, living on fresh local produce and taking inspiration from cityscapes and the natural environment. The present drawing depicts a French sailor on vacation (urlaub), strolling through the streets of Paris with a carefree air. In contrast to the grotesque caricatures of Grosz’s Berlin-era works, the drawing presents a relaxed mise-en-scène of everyday Parisian life. Figures rendered with thick, dynamic strokes are envisaged from multiple perspectives and superimposed over one another. Together with the slanted buildings and Eiffel Tower beyond, these casual irregularities recall some of the freedom and spontaneity of Paris in the Jazz Age.

In 1941 in New York, when Grosz was teaching at the Art Students League, he took in and supported the writer Walter Mehring, who had just fled the war in Europe. In 1944, the two émigré comrades collaborated on a new version of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, illustrated by Grosz and published by Random House. That same year, Grosz dedicated this significant watercolour to his dear friend Mehring on his birthday.