Studies of Heads and Figures
possibly 1944
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
pen and black ink on paperboard (back of printed announcement for "Scheherezade: Cabaret, Variete")
Dimensions
overall: 11.8 x 14.5 cm (4 5/8 x 5 11/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Given in memory of Frederick Zimmermann by his wife, Dorothy Zimmermann
Accession Number
1985.18.37
Art Historical Context
Max Beckmann's *Studies of Heads and Figures possibly from 1944, captures the artist's intense focus on human form during a turbulent era. A leading figure in German Expressionism and New Objectivity, Beckmann had fled Nazi Germany in 1937, living in exile in Amsterdam until 1947. Labeled a "degenerate artist" by the regime, he in secrecy, producing raw psychologically charged drawings that distilled the anguish of war and displacement. This modest sheet, just 11.8 x 14.5 cm, reveals his mastery of rapid, gestural lines to explore anatomy and expression. Executed in pen and black ink on the r...
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...