Fearing escalating Nazi antagonism in his native Germany, George Grosz took a job teaching drawing in New York in 1932, and by 1933 he had become a permanent resident. Although he was at first overwhelmed by the size and pace of New York, he later confessed that it had an immediate effect on his art. His work became less overtly political, and he experienced “a continual shifting from hard and sharp lines to soft colours and gracious contours.” He sketched the people and sights of the city almost continually, turning these spontaneous drawings into more finished works in his studio.