George Grosz (1893-1959)
AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION OF WORKS ON PAPER
George Grosz (1893-1959)

Die Schwester von Borsig

细节
George Grosz (1893-1959)
Die Schwester von Borsig
inscribed 'Borsig's Schwester...' (lower right)
watercolour and reed pen and brush and India ink on paper
18 1/8 x 12¼ in. (46.1 x 31.2 cm.)
Executed in 1923
来源
The artist's estate (with the Nachlass stamp and number '812' on the reverse).
Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York, by 1987.
Acquried from the above by the present owner.
展览
Milan, Palazzo Reale (S. Sabarsky & R. Jentsch (eds.)], George Grosz, Die Berliner Jahre, May 1985 - February 1987, no. 132 (illustrated), this exhibition later travelled to Ferrara, Palazzo dei Diamanti, Vienna, Museum Moderne Kunst, Naples, Accademia di Belle Arti, Hamburg, Kunsthalle, Paris, Hôtel de Ville, Munich, Museum Villa Stuck, Salzburg, Landessammlungen Rupertinum, Graz, Kulturhaus der Stadt and Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft.
Milan, Fondazione Antonio Mazzotta, Il disegno del nostro secolo, Da Klimt a Wols, April - July 1994, no. 161 (illustrated p. 253).
Naples, Accademia di Belle Arti, Goya, Daumier, Grosz, Il trionfo dell'idiozia, Pregiudizi, follie e banalità dell'esistenza europea, April - May 1992, no. 247 (illustrated p. 226).
Kyoto, Isetan Museum, Arte e moda, February - July 1998; this exhibition later travelled to Tokyo, Station Gallery and Himeij, Municipal Museum of Art.
Siena, Complesso Museale Santa Maria della Scala, La lente di Freud, Una galleria dell'inconscio, November 2008 - February 2009 (illustrated p. 325).
Brühl, Max Ernst Museum [R. Jentsch (ed.)], Georg Grosz, Deutschland, ein Wintermärchen, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Collagen, 1908-1958, September - December 2011, no. 60 (illustrated p. 122).

拍品专文

This watercolour portrait is a caricature of a young ambitious girl and wanna-be film star that Grosz made as part of a series of stage-set and costume designs for the 1923 production of Georg Kaiser's play Nebeneinander (Side-by-side). A Volksstück, or 'people's play', that opened at the Lustspielhaus in Berlin on 3 November 1923, the drama was an ironic take on social mobility during the turbulent period of hyperinflation in Germany. Distinguished by Grosz' stark angular sets, it marked a turning point for Kaiser, being the very first of his non-Expressionist dramas. Indeed, it proved to be the first of a trilogy of plays that introduced a new realism into German theatre and depicted the countrys new society as one founded on opportunism and self-interest. For this Nebeneinander is now considered to be one of the very first dramas of the Neue Sachlichkeit.
Grosz' drawing of Borsig's Sister is founded on a stock character who appears in many of his satirical drawings of the period. The best known of these appears in his 1919 watercolour Beauty, I shall sing thy Praise. Grosz' written description of Borsig'sSister reads 'High-class film broad already a rising movie star black dinner costume small fur cravat huge red purse small white hat'.