Couple
George Grosz
Description
George Grosz
Germany, 1893–1959
Couple
circa 1915
Ink on paper
Gift of the Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection, 2007/2.109
Ernst Kirchner
Germany, 1880–1938
Dancing Couple (Dodo and Partner)
1910
Graphite on paper
Gift of the Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection, 2007/2.82
Urban social spaces emerged as both fascinating and frightening scenes of sexuality for Expressionists. Grosz often utilized café tables as symbols of the isolating distance between men and women, heightened by their positions only feet from each other.
While Grosz focused on his subjects’ isolation and anonymity—the woman of Couple lacks all facial features—Kirchner favored the physical contact between men and women. In Dancing Couple he draws the pairs of dancers without clear beginnings and endings, as if each couple were a single entity.
Subject Matter:
Man and woman seated at a café table.
Physical Description:
Man and woman at table. Man central figure, from top to bottom of image, with his right leg resting on his left knee and his face turned to look out, left. Man identified by detailed masculine face, short hair, pants and shirt with heeled shoes. Woman identified by skirt, heeled shoe, and hat. Only one foot visible, as she sits with her back to us. She is much smaller than the man's figure. Table has no visible support, no visible chairs, though figures appear to be sitting.
Usage Rights:
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