The End of a Perfect Day [Nach Getaner Arbeit]

© Estate of George Grosz/VAGA for ARS, New York, NY, New York, NY. Not for reproduction or publ…
© Estate of George Grosz/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY
The End of a Perfect Day [Nach Getaner Arbeit]
© Estate of George Grosz/VAGA for ARS, New York, NY, New York, NY. Not for reproduction or publication.

The End of a Perfect Day [Nach Getaner Arbeit]

Date1939
Artist (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)
Credit LineGift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1983
Object number1983-12
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsPRINT
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.