Early Life Hermann Gross was born in Lahr in Baden, Germany on the 4th February 1904 and at the age of fourteen began his art studies under Rudolf Yelin, a well known church painter and stained- glassmaker in Stuttgart. From 1919 to 1925 he attended the Württemberg Arts and Crafts School, where he learned to become a gold- and silversmith subsequently becoming the master pupil of Professor Paul Haustein. In 1925 he enrolled on a one-year course in engraving and metal chasing at the State Academy of Fine and Applied Arts in Berlin run by Professor Waldemar Raemisch. A year later he moved to Paris where he worked with Robert Wlérick. When Gross moved to Paris in 1928, he was accompanied by his partner, Hildegard Friedrichs, author, and fashion illustrator. They shared a shed- like building in a courtyard at 48 Avenue des Gobelins bordering Montparnasse. Gross had a circle of friends in Paris – mostly young people at the beginning of their artistic careers. Among them was Jean-Louis Barrault, who became one of France’s most distinguished actors and directors – perhaps best remembered for his portrayal of Hamlet and as the mime in Marcel Carné’s film Les enfants du paradis (1944). In 1929 Gross exhibited a metal sculpture entitled Portrait de jeune fille repousse sur cuivre. at the Salon d’Automne in Paris. Suzy de Solidor Suzy de Solidor was born in Deauville in 1900: her real name being Suzy Louise Rocher. She changed her name to Suzy de Solidor when she moved to Paris in the late 1920s. She was one of the first symbols of sexual emancipation in France during the 1930s. Early in 1930, she became popular as a singer, opening a chic nightclub called Boîte de Nuit which was one of the trendiest night spots in Paris. Suzy Solidor did not hide her sexuality and sang songs that overtly revealed that she was gay. One of the singer’s most famous publicity achievements was to become heralded as ‘the most painted woman in the world’. She posed for some of the best-known artists of the day including Jean Cocteau , Pablo Picasso , and Georges Braque. Her stipulation for sitting was that she would be given the paintings to hang in her club. There are, in total, around 150 paintings of Solidor. In Cagnes-sur-Mer, in the south of France, there is a museum dedicated to her with a collection of 42 portraits all painted by different artists. She died in 1983. It is not known whether she sat for Gross or whether he based his work on occasional sightings of her at cabaret performances or on the many paintings of her that would have been accessible in Paris at that time. The Silver Head The silver head created by Gross is of particular interest. One quality that this work possesses is playfulness – it is challenging, teasing, and puzzling. This playfulness offers both illusions and allusions. One moment the head seems to be one thing, the next moment it is something else. An extraordinary feature of the head is that from the reverse side, the head takes on the appearance of a Cubist painting. The muted palette of bronze, pink, steel blue and grey are strongly reminiscent of certain portraits by Picasso. There can be few examples of sculpture that mysteriously dissolves into what appears to be a painting. The colours are a natural result of the process of oxidisation. We know that some contemporary silversmiths deliberately seek to achieve the oxidised effect on their jewelry. After her husband’s death Trude Sand insisted that the head should be kept highly polished and one must assume that this stricture applied solely to the exterior. What are the aesthetic consequences? Whilst the polished surface quite literally reflects the external world, the oxidised interior invites the viewer into it. The untreated side provides an authentic face, whilst the polished side provides an artificial face. The head is teasing insofar as it presents the viewer with a series of further paradoxes. Whilst the exterior of an object is usually that aspect that gains the viewer’s attention, here it is the interior that appears to possess more character and meaning. What is particularly intriguing is that Gross is inviting us to see behind the mask, something that is rarely done. It is as if a taboo has been broken. To emphasise this feeling of gaining new insights, we are presented with a face in which the eye is dominant and rather like the Eye of Horus – the ancient Egyptian symbol of indestructibility. One of the most intriguing angles from which to view the head is from the back. Or is it the back? Gross would have been aware of the work of Constantin Brancusi, for he was working in Paris at the same time as Gross. He would have known of Brancusi’s minimalist representations of the human face – The Sleeping Muse. The strongly ovate shape of the face of The Sleeping Muse intentionally suggests an egg – a symbol of birth or new life. In discussing the nature of his work Brancusi coined the striking aphorism that “simplicity is complexity resolved”. So, when one moves to a position to view the ‘rear’ of the head, the intrinsic complexity of the head magically resolves into a simple Brancusian ovoid. So, in this single artefact – the silver head – we have allusions not only to different artistic genres but also to symbols of considerable power – indestructability, birth, and rebirth. These, in turn, can be interpreted as signs of resurrection and hope – themes that Gross pursued throughout his life. But then the question may be asked: ‘How can one be so confident that Gross was trying to communicate any of these messages? The simple answer is that we do not know. But that question rather misses the point. What Gross has succeeded in doing is stimulating the viewer to reflect on its meaning. The Silver Head is now in the possession of Aberdeen Art Gallery. Gross left Paris in 1935 and returned to Germany.