George Grosz (1893-1959) Oberarzt Dr. Bautze (Chief Physician Dr. Bautze), 1927 Ink and chalk on paper 18-1/8 x 23-1/4 ines (46.0 x 59.1 cm) (sheet) Signed lower right: Grosz / Für Hintergrund film / Schveyk / Reg Piscator Stamped and numbered in ink verso: GEORGE GROSZ NACHLASS / 2-141-2 / GEORGE GROSZ / The Cottage, Woodhull Road / Huntington, New York PROVENANCE: The Estate of George Grosz; Private collection, Dallas. EXHIBITED: Villa Medici, "George Grosz Berlin-New York," Rome, May 9-July 15, 2007; Akim Monet Fine Arts, "Of Mice and Men," Los Angeles, California, October 5-December 5, 2020; Akim Monet Fine Arts, "Aktivismus," Dallas, June 21-September 21, 2022. LITERATURE: R. Jentsch, E. Crispolti, & P. Dagen, "George Grosz Berlin-New York," Skira Editore, Milano, 2007, no. 197, p. 157, illustrated. NOTE: This work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of works on paper by George Grosz in preparation by Ralph Jentsch, managing director of the George Grosz Estate. The satirical novel The Good Soldier Schweik (also spelled Schwejk or Švejk) by Jaroslav Hašek (1883-923) is one of the greatest antiwar books of all time. In the story Hašek detailed the life and times of his fictional character, the rotund and mild-mannered Joseph Schweik, who is inducted into the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to fight against the Allied Powers in World War I (1914-1918). An enthusiastic patriot, Schweik is also a lumbering idiot who, in his zealotry to carry out the orders of his superiors, succeeds only in creating havoc. But one is never certain if Schweik's ineptness reveals his true nature or if it is clever posturing as a means of self-preservation. Whatever the case, his foul-ups keep him from reaching the war's blood-spattered frontline, until the story's ending, when he finally arrives at the front but disappears without a trace while on patrol. A colorful character, as a young man Hašek was an anarchist militant before he became completely engrossed in his writing. At the outbreak of WWI the wild bohemian, writer, and radical anarchist found himself inducted into the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and sent to the frontline trenches to fight against the Allied Powers; it is not hard to see that The Good Soldier story was to some degree autobiographical. While he had already invented his Schweik character and had previously written stories about him, it was during the travails of war that Hašek began to "flesh out" the character; transforming him into a good-natured buffoon that became a menace to the forces of militarism. In 1928 Erwin Piscator (1893-1966), the German Marxist director and producer of political theater during the years of the Weimar Republic, developed a landmark stage play adaptation of The Good Soldier Schweik that he presented at the Theater am Nollendorfplatz in Berlin. Piscator commissioned prominent playwright Hans Reimann (1889-1969) to write the play's script, and Bertolt Brecht assisted in writing the adaptation. Edmund Meisel (1894-1930) who just three years earlier had scored the music for Sergei Eisenstein's The Battleship Potemkin, was commissioned to compose the music. The character of Schweik was played by the famed actor Max Pallenberg. George Grosz created the stage backgrounds for the play, making hundreds of pen and ink drawings for the production. His drawings were made into an animated film that was back-projected onto the stage to coincide with the play's action – a groundbreaking theatrical technique common to Piscator's productions. Oberarzt Dr. Bautze (Chief Physician Dr. Bautze), was presented in "Phase 4" of the background projection for Erwin Piscator's 1928 stage play adaptation of Jaroslav Hašek's satirical novel The Good Soldier Schweik. HID12401132022 © 2026 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved www.HA.com/TexasAuctioneerLicenseNotice

Villa Medici, "George Grosz Berlin-New York," Rome, May 9-July 15, 2007; Akim Monet Fine Arts, "Of Mice and Men," Los Angeles, California, October 5 - December 5, 2020; Akim Monet Fine Arts, "Aktivismus," Dallas, June 21-September 21, 2022.

The Estate of George Grosz; Private collection, Dallas.

Presents very well. Marks in margins, commensurate with use in theater. Mild toning to sheet. Scattered pinpoints of foxing. Minor losses and small area of brown discoloration along extreme lower edge of sheet. Three soft horizontal creases through sheet. Small tear (< .5-in) on left and right edges of sheet. UV examined. Framed under acrylic.
Framed Dimensions 41.125 X 29.5 ines