M HKA Ensembles

Painting

Collection: Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerpen.

George Grosz (26 July 1893 – 6 July 1959) was a German artist known for his vibrant and satirical caricatures of Berlin life in the 1920s, in the difficult interbellum period in German and European history. A prominent member of the Berlin Dada and New Objectivity group during the era of the Weimar Republic, Grosz was anti-Nazi, and left Germany shortly before Hitler came to power. His portrait is of his friend and writer Walter Mehring, who was one of the most renowned authors in the Weimar Republic. His writing was banned by the Nazis, and his books were also burnt during the Nazi book burnings of 1933. Persecuted, he fled Germany. In his portrait, Mehring sits in a chair smoking, staring wistfully into the distance, and behind him we see a scene of war and ruination.