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George Grosz (1893-1959) is best remembered for his violent satirical drawings of the decadent Berlin of the 1920s, which depict a corrupt world of leering businessmen pawing at prostitutes. These drawings were collected and reproduced in publications such as Ecce Homo (1923). Ecce Homo was seized by the Public Prosecutor, and in February 1924 Grosz was tried for obscenity and fined 6,000 marks. It was perhaps this that prompted an extended trip to France, for the whole of April and May of 1924, resulting in his first French exhibition in that November, and a further extended spell in France from June to October in 1925. Grosz had studied in Paris in 1912 at the Atelier Colarossi, at which time he met likeminded artists such as Moise Kisling and Jules Pascin, and made friends with Bohemian figures such as the writer Pierre Mac Orlan. It was to Mac Orlan that Grosz turned for guidance to the new post-war Paris. As Hans Hess writes in his excellent biography George Grosz , "In Apr

I have already posted here about the great between-the-wars etcher and illustrator Chas Laborde. Now Emmanuel Pollaud-Dulian, the man behind the excellent Chas Laborde and Gus Bofa websites, has kindly sent me a copy of his new book, which is a survey and celebration of Chas Laborde's art. The title is Chas Laborde: Un homme dans la foule (Chas Laborde: A man in the crowd), referring to Laborde's keenly observational account of street life not just in Paris but also in London, New York, Moscow, Madrid, and Berlin. Chas Laborde's most important works were the series of etched livres d'artiste he created under the generic title Rues et visages,  beginning with Rues et visages de Paris in 1926. Emmanuel Pollaud-Dulian, Chas Laborde: Un homme dans la foule Paris: Michel Lagarde, ISBN 978-2-916421-22-3, �19 Chas Laborde, Rue M�nilmontant Etching reproduced on p.15, I believe this comes from Rues et visages de Paris The book is a very handsome production, well illustrated