Otto Greiner (Leipzig 1869 - 1916 Munich)
Study of a Man Looking Upwards with Raised Left Hand,
a double-sided preliminary drawing for the lithograph "The Devil Presenting Woman to the World"
1897
black chalk (or charcoal) and pencil with white heightening on tan paper
38,9 x 28,3 cm (sheet)
center left in black chalk (or charcoal) dated "6.2.97," initialed "O.Gr.," and inscribed "Rom" ["Rome"]
possibly signed in pencil lower left margin: "O [?] Greiner"
inscription in black chalk or charcoal lower left margin: "Enrico marini, Via [indecipherable; an address in Italy?]"
verso with the study of the head of a smiling woman (which is also a preliminary drawing for the lithograph "The Devil Presenting Woman to the World"), red chalk on paper, published in Julius Vogel, Otto Greiner (Bielefeld and Leipzig: Belhagen, 1925), pg. 68, ill. 85 (misidentified as study for the etching "Hexenschule")
The Daulton Collection
Provenance:
Collection Guido von Usedom (probably 1854-1925), Potsdam; his collector's stamp in black ink verso lower right corner: "Sammlung Guido v. Usedom."
Collection Eberhard Wolfram Grieb (1947-1990), Reutlingen/New York, with his collector's wet stamp, three nested rhombi in red ink (not in Lugt), lower right corner recto and verso.
Discussion:
This double-sided drawing consists of studies for Greiner's 1898 lithograph "Der Teufel zeigt das Weib dem Volke" ["The Devil Presenting Woman to the World"], also known as "Die Feilbietung" ["The Offering"], Sheet III of the print cycle "Vom Weib" ["From Woman"]; Sheet III is recorded in the Vogel catalogue raisonné of Greiner's graphic work as Nr. 72. "The Devil Presenting Woman to the World" is perhaps Greiner's most widely known work.
