Elegant Couple at a Reception – Ferdinand Götz, 1932

Elegantes Paar beim Empfang. Design drawing in gouache and watercolour by Ferdinand Götz (1874–1936), created for the satirical magazine Fliegende Blätter, 27 October 1932. Signed lower right. Image size approx. 30.4 × 18.7 cm.

A fashionable scene from the interwar years: an elegant couple arrives at a reception. The gentleman appears in full evening dress with bow tie, top hat, walking stick, and gloves. The lady wears a pearl necklace and a slender evening gown with a deeply cut back, typical of early 1930s fashion. In her arm she holds an impressive bouquet of flowers, just received. With elegant gestures she steps inside, her gloves already removed.

The scene takes a satirical turn through the caption in Fliegende Blätter. The gentleman cracks a bad joke:

„Gnädiges Fräulein haben die Ohren glücklicherweise etwas durch die Haare geschützt; wie ich erfahre, soll heute Abend noch eine Heulsirene auf uns losgelassen werden.“ [Gnädiges Fräulein, your ears are fortunately somewhat protected by your hair; for as I hear, a wailing siren is to be unleashed upon us this evening.] To which she replies: „Ich bin allerdings gebeten worden, ein paar Schubertlieder zu singen.“ [I have, after all, been asked to sing a few Schubert songs.]

Fliegende Blätter was aimed at the German bourgeoisie and is regarded as the compendium of satire from the late 19th to the early 20th century. With entertaining, mocking, and humorous caricatures and picture stories, it poked fun at virtually all professions, social classes, and spheres of life.

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