Lot 307 D

In this watercolour Otto Griebel demonstrates his mercilessly scathing power of observation and his talent for caricature. The Bible student of the title, a gaunt and elderly-looking little woman in a black dress with a high neckline, bleakly looks past the viewer. The book "Tägliches Manna" (Daily manna) on her divan, which is a devotional text for the purpose of spiritual awakening, as well as a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" and a poster thematising the Thousand-Year Kingdom testify to her devout faith. The image depicts Ms Knorr, Griebel's landlady in Dresden's Schulgutstraße during 1919 and 1920, who was a member of the "International Bible Students". In Germany the members of this movement - out of which various religious organisations would develop, including Jehovah's Witnesses - became known as the "Ernste Bibelforscher", that is, "serious Bible students". The first owner of this sheet was the Dresden businessman Max Roesberg, who sat for a portrait by Otto Dix in 1922.
After Otto Dix, Griebel also established close contact with Düsseldorf's art scene in 1922/23. He took part in the First International Art Exhibition in Düsseldorf in the spring of 1922, became an external member of the group "Das junge Rheinland" and also met the famous gallerist and patron Johanna Ey during a visit to Düsseldorf in autumn of that year. She purchased several works from him and also visited Griebel in Dresden in early 1923.