Figürliche Kompositionsskizze mit Bezeichung (Figural Sketch with Inscription) [p. 9]
1876 to 1900
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
graphite on paper
Dimensions
page size: 21 x 16.9 cm (8 1/4 x 6 5/8 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Max Beckmann
Accession Number
1984.64.55.4
Art Historical Context
Visitors to the National Gallery of Art are delighted *Figürliche Kompositionizze mit Bezeich (Figural Sketch withscription)* [p. 9], a intimate graphite drawing on paper by Max Beckmann. Created sometime between 1876 and 1900—likely during the artist's formative years, as he was born in1884—this modest 21 x 16.9 cm sheet captures a figural composition, hinting at Beckmann's emerging interest in dynamic human forms. The accompanying inscription adds a layer of personal notation, typical of an artist's exploratory process. Beckmann would later become a towering figure in German Expressionism, ...
About the Artist
Max Beckmann
Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (1884-1950) stands as one of the most significant German painters of the twentieth century, a complex artist who bridged Expressionism and the New Objectivity while forging a deeply personal visual language. Born in Leipzig into a middle-class family, Beckmann's artistic journey spanned from academic classicism through the traumatic crucible of World War I to a mature s...