Blind Cripple George Grosz

• Characteristic watercolour drawing by George Grosz featuring subtle social criticism • Authentic, contemporary testimony to everyday life in the Weimar Republic • Exhibited in 1930 at the Grosz solo exhibition at the Galerie Flechtheim in Düsseldorf Were it not for the unambiguous title ‘Blinder Krüppel’ (Blind Cripple), this wonderfully large-format watercolour of a man walking with his dog would, at first glance, almost appear to be a cheerful cityscape. The delicate brushstrokes, the light colour palette and the hinted-at park-like background with its fence, trees and a monument all emphasise this seemingly harmless scene. Yet on closer inspection, it quickly becomes clear that the man depicted is a war-wounded soldier who returned home from the First World War blind and with a leg injury. It is only with the help of his guide dog that he finds his way through the city; his walking stick aids him as he walks. Nevertheless, he wears his uniform and the Iron Cross around his neck with pride. Disabled soldiers, forced to beg for their daily sustenance, were a common sight on the streets of Berlin in the 1920s. The First World War, the defining catastrophe of the early 20th century, led to fundamental social changes. After the end of the war, social inequality and injustice grew increasingly acute; countless people were threatened by unemployment and poverty, whilst many veterans were left permanently physically or mentally disabled. George Grosz, too, experienced the horrors of war as a soldier – destruction, injury and the death of his comrades. Following these profound upheavals, the classical ideals of art had lost their validity; Grosz therefore sought to capture and process what he had seen and experienced through the medium of satire, the grotesque or exaggerated alienation. He became one of the most perceptive and unsparing observers of metropolitan Berlin in the 1920s. | 1893 - Berlin - 1959 | Moderne Kunst | Arbeiten auf Papier | Nummer: 26x2546 | Provenance: Atelier des Künstlers, 1923; Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin 1930 (in Kommision); George Grosz, USA, nach 1933; Associated American Artists Gallery, New York; Nachlass Elsbeth Bothe, Baltimore, USA; Galerie Ronny Van de Velde, Knokke-Heist, Belgien, 2013 von Vorgenanntem erworben; Ketterer, München 18.7.2020, Los 370; Sammlung, Rheinland, bei Vorgenannter erworben.

Estimation:€33,000

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