Old Woman Knitting with a Child at Her Side
1900
Medium
graphite with watercolor on wove paper
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Max Beckmann
Accession Number
1984.64.64.89
Art Historical Context
In the intimate drawing *Old Woman Knitting with a Child at Her Side* (1900), Maxmann, then a precocious 16-year-old, captures a tender moment of everyday life. Rendered in graphite with watercolor on wove paper—a, textured support ideal for delicate sketches—this work showcases Beckmann's early mastery of line and subtle color washes. The scene evokes quiet domesticity, with the elderly woman's focused knitting and the child's close companionship suggesting themes of intergenerational care and simplicity at the turn of the 20th century in Germany. Though Beckmann would later emerge as a towe...
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...