Skizze - Gesicht (Sketch of a Face) [p. 42]
1944-1949
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
graphite on paper
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Max Beckmann
Accession Number
1984.64.38.22
Art Historical Context
**Skizze - GesichtSketch of a Face)** created by Max Beckmann between 1944 and 1949, is a poignant graphite drawing on paper that captures the intensity of the artist's late-career introspection. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's Department of Modern and Contemporary Drawings (CG-W), this work was generously gifted by Mrs. Max Beckmann, a personal touch to its legacy. Beckmann, a towering figure of German Expressionism, favored such sketches as rapid studies that distilled raw emotion into stark lines and shadows. This piece emerges from a tumultuous period in Beckmann's life. Exiled fr...
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...