Max Beckmann

Max Beckmann (1884-1950) is arguably the most significant German painter of the 20th century. He sought refuge from fascism and war in Amsterdam before moving to the USA, where he spent the final years of his life living and working as a teacher of art in St. Louis and New York City, where this work was painted. Beckmann was baptised into the Lutheran church but did not adhere to any formal religious doctrine, instead exploring profound philosophical, theological and metaphysical questions throughout his life’s work. Many of his late works, like this one, have a retrospective quality, with the artist reflecting on the experiences of youth and of the traumatic experiences of war, loss and displacement. The weary melancholy of the man far from home is poignant in the work of an artist in exile, at the age of 65, just a year before his own death.