George Grosz (Berlin 1893-1959 Berlin)

Illustration for Rachilde's French decadent novel Der Liebesturm

1916

charcoal and pencil on thin laid paper

28.6 x 22.3 cm

verso with signature stamp and stamp "George Grosz Nachlass" and the estate number "5-182-5"

The Daulton Collection

Discussion:

The drawing depicts one of the novel's central characters, Mathurin Barnabas, who was a necrophilic lighthouse watchman!

"Die Insel der lebenden Toten: Im Jahre 1899 veröffentlichte die französische Schriftstellerin Rachilde (Marie-Marguerite Valette) ihr Makaberwerk "Der Liebesturm". Die deutsche Übersetzung der Geschichte um den absonderlichen, leichenfleddernden Leuchtturmwärter Mathurin Barnabas und seinen wild halluzinierenden, schnell abgestumpften neuen Gehilfen Jean Maleur erfolgte 1911. Grosz las das Buch und begann voller Elan mit dessen Illustrierung. Die Begeisterung für die Erzählung, vor allem der bizarren Charaktere, entfaltete sich in rund dreißig Zeichnungen unterschiedlichen Formats. In diesem bleistiftumrissenen Kleinod schwingt der todbringende Alte in melodischem Irrsinn den Hobel."

["The island of the living dead: In 1899, the French writer Rachilde (Marie-Marguerite Valette) published her macabre work 'Der Liebesturm' ('The Tower of Love'). The German translation of the story about the strange, scavenging lighthouse keeper Mathurin Barnabas and his wildly hallucinating, quickly jaded new assistant Jean Maleur was made in 1911. Grosz read the book and enthusiastically began to illustrate it. The enthusiasm for the story, especially the bizarre characters, unfolded in around thirty drawings of different formats. In this pencil-outlined gem, the deadly old man wields the planer in melodic madness."]

Excerpts from the novel:

"The pale face, the snub nose, the bloodshot eyes, which were now weeping a kind of shiny mucus, the tall, bald skull, gave him the appearance of a ghost, of a sailor who had died and ... returned to torment the others."

"Yes, it was old Mathurin Barnabas, first lighthouse keeper on Ur-Men, singing in a woman's voice."

(Rachilde, Der Liebesturm, Minden, 1911, pp. 172, 30)