George Grosz (1893-1959) Friedrichstrasse Off-set lithograph, 1918, on wove paper, signed in pencil, numbered 8 from the edition of 50 or 60, published by A. Flechtheim, Berlin Subject: 46 x 32 cm Provenance: P. & D. Colnaghi, London, 1975 Literature: Duckers E 49 This same subject was used in a smaller format in the series Ecce Homo (Duckers SI, I), published in 1922 (dated 1923). Grosz and his publishers Gumperz and Herzfelde were indicted for indecency by the State Attorney General of the First Berlin Regional Court. “I was each one of the very characters I drew,” Grosz later observed “the champagne-swilling glutton favoured by fate no less than the poor beggar standing with outstretched hands in the rain. I was split in two, just like society at large” (George Grosz, A Small Yes and a Big No, translated by A. J. Pomerans, Huntington, NY, 1955, p. 97) ©MFA, Boston