Die große Nacht im Eimer

Die große Nacht im Eimer (The Big Night Down the Drain) is an oil on canvas painting by the German painter Georg Baselitz.

One interpretation is that the painting shows a boy after masturbating, while another is that it depicts a hideous dwarf (with Hitler hairdo) with a penis of grotesque size.

The art historian Klaus Gallwitz described the motif: “The figure, whose physique is reminiscent of a boy, stands with legs apart and holds an oversized phallus in his left hand.

He looks past the viewer.” The slender figure stands in extreme contrast to the overemphasized masculinity: “The shape of the face, like the upper body covered with informal brush strokes, has no other physiognomic features apart from the eyes and a large ear.”[2] In the same year, Baselitz created another painting of sexual content with the same title (oil on canvas, 180 × 165 cm), now in a private collection.

[5] In October 1963, the work, as well as the painting Der nackte Mann, shown in the West Berlin gallery Werner & Katz, was seized by the public prosecutor's office because of immorality.