George Grosz
American, born Germany, 1893-1959
The Avenue of Success
INV-3328
George Grosz
American, born Germany, 1893-1959c. 1935
The Avenue of Success
George Grosz American, born Germany, 1893-1959 →watercolordrawings (visual works)
Date
c. 1935
Medium
Watercolor, with brush and brown ink, on grayish-white wove paper
Dimensions
67 × 49 cm (36 × 28 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Thomas Hart (Ruth Page) Fisher
Invited to teach in New York in 1932, George Grosz became a permanent resident in 1933. The artist created The Avenue of Success as one of 20 illustrations for a 1935 collection of short stories by the American author O. Henry. In this watercolor, Grosz depicted the story’s denouement, in which one character—fresh from cheating a tourist out of $140 and rewarding himself with a fat cigar—lectures a vagabond denizen of the park on the value of work. Viewed in light of the Great Depression, the figures represent the extremes of capitalist economics, making explicit the fact that the “avenue of success” is a two-way street.
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