George Grosz

Drawing for ‘The Mirror of the Bourgeoisie’

c.1925

In Tate Modern

Magic Realism: Art in Weimar Germany 1919-33

Free entry

Artist: George Grosz 1893–1959
Original title: Drawing for 'Der Spiesser-Spiegel'
Medium: Ink on paper
Dimensions: Support: 629 x 505 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1955
Reference: T00020

Catalogue entry

George Grosz 1893-1959

T00020 Drawing for 'Der Spiesser-Spiegel' c.1925

Inscribed 'Grosz' b.r.
Reed pen on paper, 24 3/4 x 19 7/8 (63 x 50.5)
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1955
Prov: Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin and London (purchased from the artist); CAS 1936
Repr: George Grosz, Der Spiesser-Spiegel (Dresden 1925), 39th drawing

Der Spiesser-Spiegel (the title may be freely translated as The Mirror of the Bourgeoisie) is a book with reproductions of sixty satirical drawings and watercolours of Berlin life. 'The drawing', wrote the artist, 'is made with reedpen, then and there my favorite drawing material ... no delineation beforehand, I very often made many drawings of the same subject, till I deemed it allright' (letter of 8 September 1955).

Both this and the following drawing were presented to the Contemporary Art Society by the famous German dealer Alfred Flechtheim, who became Grosz's dealer in 1923 and spent his last years as a refugee in this country.

Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.342, reproduced p.342