Quappi with Cigarette
1929
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
charcoal on wove paper
Dimensions
overall: 49 x 37.5 cm (19 5/16 x 14 3/4 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Max Beckmann
Accession Number
1984.64.4
Art Historical Context
**Quappi with Cigarette**, a intimate charcoal drawing by Max Beck from 1929, captures the artist's wife, Mathilde "Quappi" Beckmann, in a moment of quiet intensity. Rendered on wove paper 49 x 37.5 cm, this work exemplifies Beckmann's mastery of portraiture during the Weimar Republic era, a time of social upheaval and artistic experimentation in Germany. Beckmann, a leading figure in German Expressionism and New Objectivity, often depicted personal subjects like Quappi amid broader existential themes, infusing his figures with psychological depth and angular distortion. The medium of charcoa...
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...