The Hero, no. 1 from the series The American Scene
Artist/Maker
George Grosz
(American, born in Germany, 1893–1959)
Date1933, published 1934
MediumLithograph
DimensionsImage (irregular): 12 7/8 × 8 3/4 in. (32.7 × 22.2 cm)
Sheet: 15 7/8 × 11 3/8 in. (40.4 × 28.9 cm)
Sheet: 15 7/8 × 11 3/8 in. (40.4 × 28.9 cm)
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
PortfolioThe American Scene
Object number1936.7
Status
Not on viewThe Hero depicts a soldier grinning sheepishly, holding a crutch and a fistful of flowers, his right foot a bandaged stump. Produced over a decade after the war's end, this lithograph reveals the bitterness and resentment still present in Germany, as well as the long-faded glory and destitution of many soldiers after the war. Here, Grosz uses the lithographic crayon to create a softer, more pictorial effect, an indication of the ways in which his graphic style changed after the war.
Exhibition History
War and Anti-War Images from Four Centuries
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 21, 1982 - October 24, 1982 )
From Expressionism to the New Objectivity: German Prints and Drawings, 1905-1945
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (June 28, 1988 - August 21, 1988 )
The Body and Other 20th-Century Metaphors
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (November 15, 1991 - January 12, 1992 )
Images of War: Ritual and Reality
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (August 15, 1995 - October 22, 1995 )
Utopia and Alienation: German Art and Expressionism, 1900-1935
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 17, 1999 - December 19, 1999 )
"To Make Things Visible": Art in the Shadow of World War I
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (February 3, 2009 - June 7, 2009 )
A Picture of Health: Art and the Mechanisms of Healing
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (February 2, 2016 - May 29, 2016 )
Like a Good Armchair: Getting Uncomfortable with Modern and Contemporary Art
- Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 17, 2023 - July 16, 2023 )
Collections
- Modern & Contemporary
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1934, published 1936
1933, published 1935
second half 19th century