Critical evaluation

A Little Child Shall Lead Them (Family), 1932 Watercolor and gouache on paper/22 3/8 X 16 15/16 IN. (56.8 X 43.0 CM.)/Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, 1966

   “A Little Child Shall Lead them (Family)” is a work of George Grosz, and he drew this piece in 1932. He was a German artist, and he tried to show people’s insatiable desire. However, in this piece he used light ways such as light and water based on colors. In my opinion, this piece is excellent example to show the distinguish style of George .

     George Grosz seems that he got lots of impact from history like other artists who lived same period. I could see a lot of the things what connected with the war in this piece. He experienced lots of historical events such as WWI, and reflected  the historical events into his works. This piece contains serious meanings which happened after WWI.

   “A Little Child Shall Lead them (Family)” is a work of George Grosz, and he drew this piece in 1932. He was a German artist, and he tried to show people’s insatiable desire. However, in this piece he used light ways such as light and water based on colors. In my opinion, this piece is excellent example to show the distinguish style of George .

     George Grosz seems that he got lots of impact from history like other artists who lived same period. I could see a lot of the things what connected with the war in this piece. He experienced lots of historical events such as WWI, and reflected  the historical events into his works. This piece contains serious meanings which happened after WWI.

     A little boy holds a gun, but nobody blame him. In my opinion, he tried to criticize the social climate after WWI. He thought that people did not realize the importance of life, and the things that children should learn. Especially, the boy, who is holding a gun, shows a history background such as World War I. I consider that he wanted to express about suffering, the pain and influence of war. Perhaps, he wanted to criticize society after WWI or during the war throughout his works. This is most simialr with the artist who lived in same period with him.
     However, he shows remarkable differences throughout this piece. He chose light drawing like cartoon in this piece. Usually, many artists and even he put their intention with more heavily and seriously ways such as dark colors and gloomy drawings. However, he chose more light way in this piece even though the subject matter is serious problem. In this piece, he used soft colors and the color is not strong. In my opinion, this is important, because he expressed his intention throughout this drawing like cartoon. He used light colors and repeated smooth line works. In addition, he did not choose the moment of WWI to express the influences form the WWI. He chose the ordinary life to criticize WWI. Even though this piece looks like cartoon, this piece also has strong composition. He used moderate positive and negative spaces, and he condensed composition in the middle of bottom and make people to focus on there. Moreover, there have strong meaning and show to people. The boy catches people’s eyes.
    He had a good sense of color, and his composition is powerful, but the colors help to understand the atmosphere. In addition, the painting like cartoon helps us to have an appreciation of his work easier with familiarity. However, this piece still contain social problem, which was come from WWI, like other artists who lived the contemporary period.

George Grosz , The Survivor, 1944, Private Collection

Otto Dix, Flanders, 1934, oil on canvas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     For example, the “survivor” and “Flanders” also show the historical fact of WWI like “A Little Child Shall Lead them (Family)” . The right piece made by George Grosz and the left one was a work of Otto Dix. However, they used different style from “A Little Child Shall Lead them (Family).”  First of all, they chose the moment of the war to show the problems of WWI. In addition, they used oil colors and dark colors which can be more heavily and seriously.
George Grosz and Otto Dix were same contemporary artists.  In addition, George Grosz and Otto Dix drew with reality, and they looks like that they got lots of effect from the historical events such as World War I in the. Moreover, their works have lots of detail like other artists who were same contemporary artists.

     However, the “A Little Child Shall Lead them (Family)” is different from these two works. In “A Little Child Shall Lead them (Family)”, he used lighter color and lots of soft line drawings. Therefore, people can have an appreciation of his work with pleasure and easy understanding although the subject matter is little heavy thing.

     In conclusion, George Grosz shows the reflection of historical things such as WWI with strong composition and good senses of colors. He put his opinion about the social effect from WWI and dealt with social problems in his works. In addition, he put lots of details into his works. However, this piece,    “A Little Child Shall Lead them (Family)”, has unique style. We can see the distinguish style that is not used by artists who lived in same period. He did not choose to draw gloomy and dark moment to criticize historical event.  I considered that this work is invaluable things to learn more about George Grosz.