George Grosz (1893-1959)

This watercolour portrait is a caricature of a young ambitious girl and wanna-be film star that Grosz made as part of a series of stage-set and costume designs for the 1923 production of Georg Kaiser's play Nebeneinander (Side-by-side). A Volksstück, or 'people's play', that opened at the Lustspielhaus in Berlin on 3 November 1923, the drama was an ironic take on social mobility during the turbulent period of hyperinflation in Germany. Distinguished by Grosz' stark angular sets, it marked a turning point for Kaiser, being the very first of his non-Expressionist dramas. Indeed, it proved to be the first of a trilogy of plays that introduced a new realism into German theatre and depicted the countrys new society as one founded on opportunism and self-interest. For this Nebeneinander is now considered to be one of the very first dramas of the Neue Sachlichkeit.
Grosz' drawing of Borsig's Sister is founded on a stock character who appears in many of his satirical drawings of the period. The best known of these appears in his 1919 watercolour Beauty, I shall sing thy Praise. Grosz' written description of Borsig'sSister reads 'High-class film broad already a rising movie star black dinner costume small fur cravat huge red purse small white hat'.