Grosz achieved early recognition for his biting portrayals of Weimar-era Berlin, satirizing the culture’s hypocrisy, military platitudes, and wealthy businessmen, as in Berlin Street (1931), on view in this gallery. A pioneer of the Dada movement, he left Berlin in 1932 to settle in New York. While his characteristic cynicism continued to inform certain of his works in the United States, he also branched out in new directions. He painted this vivid watercolor of the skyline and harbor after only recently settling in Manhattan. Although boats and office buildings indicate commercial activity, Grosz’s emphasis is not the metropolis’s bustling crowds, but rather the spectacle and grandeur of the city itself.
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Artwork Details
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Title:New York Harbor
Artist:George Grosz (American (born Germany), Berlin 1893–1959 Berlin)
Date:1936
Medium:Watercolor and ink on paper
Dimensions:18 3/8 × 13 1/2 in. (46.7 × 34.3 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:George A. Hearn Fund, 1939
Object Number:39.48.1
Inscription: Signed (lower left, in black ink): Grosz
the artist, Douglaston, N. Y. (1936–39; sold through the Walker Galleries, New York to MMA)
Art Institute of Chicago. "George Grosz: A Survey of His Art from 1918 to 1938," December 15, 1938–January 15, 1939, no catalogue (checklist, watercolor no. 24 as "New York," 1934–36).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Contemporary American Paintings from the Museum's Collection," May 8, 1939–January 1, 1940, no catalogue (added to exhibition November 1939).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Contemporary Painting in the United States," April 19–27, 1941, no. 203.
Mexico City. Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes. "La Pintura Contemporánea Norteamericana," June 12–July 9, 1941, unnumbered cat. (p. 128).
Santiago. Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes. "La Pintura Contemporánea Norteamericana," September 6–October 5, 1941, unnumbered cat.
Lima. Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes. "La Pintura Contemporánea Norteamericana," November 5–30, 1941, unnumbered cat.
Quito. Universidad Central de Ecuador. "La Pintura Contemporánea Norteamericana," November 15–December 7, 1941, unnumbered cat.
New York. Gallery of Modern Art. "Major 19th and 20th Century Drawings," January 19–February 21, 1965, no catalogue.
Berlin. Neue Nationalgalerie. "George Grosz: Berlin—New York," December 21, 1994–April 17, 1995, no. X.131.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Drawing: 1930s," April–September 8, 1996, no catalogue.
"Notes: Paintings by Modern American Artists." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 34 (November 1939), p. 263.
C[hristine]. A[lexander]. "Notes: Paintings by Modern Americans." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 34 (November 1939), p. 263.
Hans Hess. George Grosz. New Haven, 1985, p. 206, fig. 191.
Ulf Erdmann Ziegler. "Despised Pleasures." Art in America 84 (January 1996), ill. p. 83 (color).
Frank Whitford inThe Berlin of George Grosz: Drawings, Watercolours and Prints, 1912–1930. Exh. cat., Royal Academy of Arts. London, 1997, p. 18, fig. 16.
Birgit Möckel. George Grosz in Amerika: 1932–1959. PhD diss., Universität Karlsruhe. Frankfurt, 1997, p. 492, no. 186.
Berit Potter. "Grace McCann Morley and the Dialectical Exchange of Modern Art in the Americas, 1935–1958." PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2015, pp. 16, 76–84, 86–102, 104–5, 107, 109–111, 127–28, 162–64, 172, 234, 244, appendix B, no. 47, discusses Exh. Mexico City and tour 1941.
George Grosz (American (born Germany), Berlin 1893–1959 Berlin)
1937
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