Oil on canvas
Grosz and Herrmann-Neisse—Berlin’s leading theater critic—moved in the same intellectual circles and contributed to the same periodicals, and in the evenings they dove together into the city’s seediest nightspots. They were, as Herrmann-Neisse later recalled, both “proper and anarchistic.” Grosz depicted his friend slumped in a chair and lost in his thoughts, his distinctive hunchback, oversized bald head, and gnarled hands rendered meticulously yet sympathetically.
2021
Publication excerpt from Heather Hess, German Expressionist Digital Archive Project , German Expressionism: Works from the Collection. 2011.
This is the second of two portraits George Grosz painted of his friend, writer Max Herrmann-Neisse. After countless hours in Grosz's studio, which yielded more than thirty preparatory drawings for the portraits, Herrmann-Neisse said he felt "completely at home" there. In this portrait, Herrmann-Neisse slumps deeply into a chair, lost in thought. Grosz meticulously yet sympathetically presents Herrmann-Neisse and his distinctive features, such as his hunchback and oversize bald head. The artist details the lines, bumps, veins, gnarls, and ruddiness of his friend's head and hands, placing him almost within arm's reach.
Grosz and Herrmann-Neisse shared the same politics, sense of humor, and cynical outlook. They were, as Herrmann-Neisse later recalled, both "proper and anarchistic." Herrmann-Neisse, Berlin's leading cabaret critic, guided the way in their nocturnal adventures. Together they dove into the seediest nightspots, while also moving in the same intellectual circles and contributing to the same periodicals.
Provenance Research Project
This work is included in the Provenance Research Project, which investigates the ownership history of works in MoMA's collection.
Galerie Alfred Flechtheim (d. 1937), Berlin.1928 – [at least 1932]
Charlotte Weidler (b. Berlin 1895- d. New York 1983), Vienna, Berlin, and New York. By 1952
Curt Valentin Gallery, New York. 1952
The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchased from Curt Valentin, April 1952
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Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity)
A modern movement that developed in Weimar Germany in the 1920s. It offered a return to unsentimental reality and a focus on the objective world, as opposed to the more abstract, romantic, or idealistic tendencies of Expressionism .
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Weimar Citizens
Gallery 514After Germany was defeated at the end of World War I, a democratic government was installed for the first time in the territory’s history.
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