Head of a Man
1950
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
bronze
Dimensions
overall: 14 x 9.2 x 9.5 cm (5 1/2 x 3 5/8 x 3 3/4 in.) accessory size (base): 7.6 x 7.6 x 7.6 cm (3 x 3 x 3 in.)
Classification
Sculpture
Department
CMC
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Max Kahn, New York
Accession Number
1995.26.1
Art Historical Context
Visitors to the National Gallery of Art will encounter *Head of a Man*, a poignant bronze sculpture by Max Beck, created in 1950—the very year of the artist's death. Standing just 14 cm tall on its cubic base, this intimate work captures the German Expressionist's late-career fascination with the human form. Beckmann, renowned for his anguished, angular figures in paintings that grappled with the traumas of World War I, Nazi persecution, and exile, turned to sculpture in his final years after fleeing Europe for the United States. Cast in bronze, the medium lends a timeless weight and patina t...
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...