The Argonauts [middle panel]
1949/1950
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
middle panel: 205.8 × 122 cm (81 × 48 1/16 in.) framed: 212.41 × 128.27 × 5.08 cm (83 5/8 × 50 1/2 × 2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CMC
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Max Beckmann
Accession Number
1975.96.1.b
Art Historical Context
Max Beckmann's *The Argonauts* [middle panel], painted in 1949–1950, forms the heart of a monumental triptych completed late in the artist's life. A leading figure of German Expressionism, Beckmann created this oil on canvas masterpiece after fleeing Nazi persecution and resettling in the United in 1947. The work draws on the ancient Greek myth of Jason the Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fce, but Beckmann infuses it with personal symbolism, reflecting themes of exile, human struggle, and mythic heroism amid post-World War II turmoil. At over two meters tall (205.8 × 122 cm), the middle panel...
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...