Artist's studio, Douglaston, Long Island (NY), 1940
Associated American Artists, New York
Lawrence Fertig Collection, New York
Sotheby's, New York, November 10, 1987, lot 29
Drouot, Paris, March 14, 1988, lot 252
Drouot, Paris, December 5, 1988, lot 47
Christie's, Impressionist and Modern Drawings and Watercolors, April 3, 1990, lot 156
Private collection, Rome

This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity issued by Ralph Jentsch, dated April 15, 2026, and will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Raisonné of works on paper

"Throughout his artistic career, Grosz always maintained a strong predilection for erotic subjects.
This interest began as early as 1912, with his move from Dresden to the metropolis of Berlin, and reached its peak with the large drawings and watercolors of the late 1920s and a series of major works on paper executed in America.
It was especially during the years from 1937 to 1941 that Grosz partially focused his work on the female nude and once again on erotic subjects, executing them in pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, watercolor, and mixed media. As was almost always the case, his wife Eva posed for him, just as she did in this work. [...]
In this piece, the artist depicts the exact moment the model has become completely naked.
Like a sculptor, Grosz models the body in every detail, emphasizing the voluptuous beauty of the naked woman. The faint details of an open portfolio on the bed stand in sharp contrast to the figure of the model, which is carefully executed in every detail, thereby dominating the picture with her beauty.
Within the artist's oeuvre, this work, 'Model looking at the portfolio', belongs to a complex of works that is exceptional in both genre and importance."

(from the archive text edited by Ralph Jentsch)