The End of a Perfect Day [Nach Getaner Arbeit]
Date1939
Artist
George Grosz
(German painter and printmaker, 1893–1959)
MediumDrypoint
Dimensionsplate: 9 15/16 × 12 15/16 in. (25.2 × 32.9 cm)
sheet: 12 11/16 × 15 5/8 in. (32.2 × 39.7 cm)
sheet: 12 11/16 × 15 5/8 in. (32.2 × 39.7 cm)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1983
Object number1983-12
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPRINT
Label TextGeorge Grosz's The End of Perfect Day depicts members of the Sturmabteilung, or Storm Detachment (commonly known as storm troopers and brownshirts ), a paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. In a style typical of Grosz's caustic caricature, a scar-faced street fighter polishes his boots and smiles contentedly. Clubs and daggers hang from the bedposts; a butcher`s knife is stashed in a preening brownshirt`s jackboot. The reclining figure may have consumed the contents of the empty bottle on the floor.