A WATERCOLOR PAINTING BY CHAIM GROSS, "CIRCUS GIRLS"

A WATERCOLOR PAINTING BY CHAIM GROSS, "CIRCUS GIRLS"

Chaim Gross ( Austrian, American, Polish, 1904 - 1991), pencil and watercolor on paper painting "Circus Girls, " circa 1980. Signed and dated lower right, titled and inscribed on the reverse. Framed behind the glass.

Chaim Gross was one of the most important American sculptors of the 20th century. Gross studied at the art academy in Budapest under painter Béla Uitz, followed by art studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna. He immigrated to the United States in 1921 and continued his studies at the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design with Elie Nadelman and others and the Art Students League with sculptor and direct carver Robert Laurent. He also attended the Educational Alliance Art School at the same time as Peter Blume, Adolph Gottlieb and Moses, and Raphael Soyer. Thereafter, Gross began an illustrious career that included important public commissions via his work for the Works Progress Administration and solo and group shows at prestigious galleries and museums such as the Whitney and the Smithsonian. Gross was also recognized with a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle de 1937 in Paris and in 1942 with a purchase prize at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Artists for Victory exhibition for his wood sculpture of famed circus performer Lillian Leitzel.

Provenance: Roosevelt Field Art Center, Inc., Garden City, New York.

Dimensions: 22 1/2 x 10 1/2 in., (57 x 27 cm.)

Condition: Very good.