George Grosz - Blind cripple. Watercolor and charcoal... Lot 725

George Grosz - Blind cripple. Watercolor and charcoal on strong buff wove paper. (19)23. Ca 64,5 x 52,5 cm. Signed and dated lower right and probably subsequently titled in English "Cripple" lower right margin of the sheet. - Characteristic watercolor drawing by George Grosz with subtle social criticism - Authentic, contemporary testimony of everyday life in the Weimar Republic - exhibited in 1930 at the Grosz solo exhibition of the Flechtheim Gallery in Düsseldorf If it were not for the unambiguous title "Blind Cripple", the wonderfully large-format watercolor of a man walking with a dog would at first glance almost seem like a cheerful city motif. The delicate brushstrokes, the light choice of colors and the suggested park-like background with fence lattice, trees and a monument emphasize this seemingly harmless scene. But on closer inspection it quickly becomes clear that the man depicted is a war-wounded soldier who has returned home from World War I blind and with a leg injury. Only with the help of his guide dog he finds his way through the big city, the cane helps him with the arduous walking. Nevertheless, he proudly wears his uniform and the Iron Cross around his neck. War-disabled soldiers, forced to beg for their daily subsistence, are a common sight on the streets of Berlin in the 1920s. The First World War, the primordial catastrophe of the early 20th century, leads to fundamental social changes. After the end of the war, social inequality and injustice become increasingly widespread, numerous people are threatened by unemployment and poverty, and many of the veterans are permanently injured physically or psychologically. As a soldier, George Grosz also experienced the atrocities of war, destruction, wounding and death of comrades. The classical ideals of art lost their validity after these profound upheavals, so Grosz tried to capture and process what he saw and experienced with the means of satire and the grotesque or excessive alienation. He became one of the most attentive and unsparing observers of the big city of Berlin in the 1920s. With a photographic expert opinion by Ralph Jentsch, Berlin/Rome, dated 16.4.2020. The work will be included in the catalog raisonné of works on paper currently in preparation. Literature: Jentsch, Ralph, George Grosz 1893-1959. a big no - The visionary Grosz, Antwerp 2013, cat. no. 43, pp. 190f. and p. 284, with full-page ill. exhibition: George Grosz. Oil paintings and watercolors, Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Düsseldorf 1930, cat.-no. 41 ("The Blind"); Impressions du Front: Invalide aveugle. George Grosz - Otto Dix, Musée du Temps, Besançon 2014/15, cat.-no. 29, p. 79 u. p. 110, with ill.; Raw War, Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, Knokke-Heist 2015/16, p. 74f., with ill.; The Art of War, Kazerne Dossin, Malines/Mecheln 2017/18, p. 141 and p. 173, with ill. Provenance: artist's studio, 1923; Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Düsseldorf 1930; George Grosz, USA, after 1933; Associated American Artists Gallery, New York; estate of Elsbeth Bothe, Baltimore, USA; Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, Knokke-Heist, Belgium. Taxation: differential tax VAT: Margin Scheme