Outside His Window – Through the Sketchbook

Scenes out of his window, George Grosz’s observations and impressions of people on the streets, and the city, fill his over 200 sketchbooks.

The sketches are done at the same time, along-side, his satirical commercial illustrations, which comment on the excesses of Wiemar Germany, 1920s and 1930s. Grosz’s works both quick and as studies, in Germany and New York City, early 1900s to 50s.

Watercolor, graphite wash and black crayon. Pen and blue ink.

Artist: George Grosz.

See the book, The Sketchbooks of George Grosz, by George Grosz, Peter Nisbet. Harvard University Art Museums Publications, Cambridge. 1993.

What has the sketchbook been in the past and what can it be today? Together this website demonstrates how sketchbooks cross disciplines, skills, cultures, gender, and class etc., to gain a better understanding.

The sketchbooks appear here not necessarily for the 'name' of the artist, but for the different thinking and seeing through the sketchbook.