PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, MADRID
Lot 26
GEORGE GROSZ(1893-1959)Gegen den äuβeren Feind / Gegen den inneren Feind
26 March 2020, 17:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£7,000 - £9,000
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GEORGE GROSZ (1893-1959)
Gegen den äuβeren Feind / Gegen den inneren Feind
stamped with the artist's estate stamp and inscribed '3 71 10' (verso)
brush, pen, India ink and pencil on paper
64.8 x 52.4cm (25 1/2 x 20 5/8in).
Executed in 1924
stamped with the artist's estate stamp and inscribed '3 71 10' (verso)
brush, pen, India ink and pencil on paper
64.8 x 52.4cm (25 1/2 x 20 5/8in).
Executed in 1924
Footnotes
The authenticity of this work has kindly been confirmed by Herrn Ralph Jentsch. This work will be included in the forthcoming George Grosz works on paper catalogue raisonné, currently being prepared.
Provenance
The artist's estate, Munich.
Private collection, Switzerland.
Galerie Michèle Heyraud, Huismes.
Private collection, Madrid (acquired from the above on 9 December 2005).
Exhibited
Milan, Palazzo Reale, George Grosz, gli anni di Berlino, 30 May - 28 July 1985, no. 124 (later travelled to Ferrara, Vienna, Naples, Hamburg, Paris, Munich, Salzburg, Graz, Berlin, Tel Aviv & Hannover).
Paris, Galerie Tendances, George Grosz, Dessins, Berlin 1912 - 1924, 9 April - 25 June 2005.
The present work features two representatives of the fledgling Weimar Republic, probably the radical politicians Gustav Noske and Wilhelm Marx. They stand back to back, swords drawn, one marked 'Gegen den inneren Feind' and the other 'Gegen den aüßeren Feind' – 'against the inner enemy' and 'against the outer enemy'. The work pertains to the mounting political extremism and the proliferation of reactionary politics in Germany, set against the backdrop of crippling reparations after the Treaty of Versailles, lack of acceptance around Germany's defeat in the War, disillusionment with Republicanism and growing populism. This drawing by Grosz is highly prophetic, as it presages the rise of the Nazis, and the catastrophic future violence which would play out in the ensuing years.
