GEORGE GROSZ (1893-1959)
United Nations Secretariat Building
signed 'Grosz' (lower right)
watercolor and pen and ink on paper
19 1/8 x 26 1/16 in (48.5 x 66.2 cm)
Executed in 1950
Footnotes:
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Ralph Jentsch. This work will be included in the forthcoming George Grosz catalogue raisonné of works on paper, currently being prepared.

Provenance
Wolfram L. Ertinger Collection, New York.
Yolanda Ertinger Collection, New York (by descent from the above); her sale, Sotheby's, London, April 5, 1978, lot 127.
Far Gallery, New York.
Sale: Christie's, London, June 22, 2001, lot 38.
Acquired at the above sale by the previous owner; their sale, Christie's, New York, September 14, 2005, lot 155.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.


This watercolor of New York shows the Secretariat Building of the United Nations which was designed in 1947 and finished in 1950 by an international team of architects, led by Wallace K. Harrison. In the near distance to the building, one can see the towers of the Con Edison power plant. Grosz started executing watercolors of New York sights and street scenes in 1932, when he came to the city for the first time to teach at the Art Students League. However, as in the mostly unknown photographs he took during the first weeks after his arrival, Grosz avoided in his works documenting landmarks and sights of interest in favor of showing scenes from the hectic life of the busy streets. In this vein, the subject property is a striking exception of a New York scene by the artist. The watercolor is undated; however, one can presume that Grosz took the opportunity of finishing this rendering of the remarkable building in 1950 as the event was widely publicized. With the creation of a work such as this in his later career, Grosz proves he still has a vivid interest in events happening around him, as he did in his early Berlin days when the young artist became famous and feared as a harsh critic and commentator of the political and social life of the Weimar Republic.

Excerpted text by Ralph Jentsch.

The sheet is fully laid down to board. Artist pinholes along all four edges and corners. All four edges are deckled. Light surface abrasions scattered throughout the composition. A minute area of lifting to the sheet (measuring 0.50 cm). A pinpoint loss (measuring 0.25 cm) to the blue skyscraper. Some wear to the edges. The sheet is time stained within the window mat.