Max Beckmann

The artist
Mathilde "Quappi" Beckmann (the artist's wife)
Gifted to Peter Rathbone from the above, June 1977

Pencil on paper. In overall good condition. Right edge is uneven and has a vertical hard crease in the upper right corner. Sheet has minor handling marks and smudging. A few small spots of foxing. Two pieces of old hinge tape on the upper edge of verso. There is minor light and mat staining.
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On the verso of the sheet, Mathilde "Quappi" Beckmann, the wife of the artist, wrote "This drawing was done approximately in 1915-16 during World War I, when Max Beckmann serves as an orderly in Belgium and France, and during his free time made drawings. This drawing is called "Horse Eating." / To Peter and Maria with love and good wishes from Quappi, June 1977".

From the end of March to the beginning of May 1915, Max Beckmann painted in Verwik, Belgium, near the battlefield a mural painting, which is not preserved Soldiers in Verwik. In connection with this work, commissioned by a chief staff surgeon, the artist produced a series of preliminary pencil drawings, for instance to prepare the rendering of the two horses with lancers. (Four of them are reproduced in the book: Stephan von Wiese, Max Beckmanns zeichnerisches Werk 1903-1925, Düsseldorf 1978, pp. 18-19. Animals grazing or lying in the fields also have been drawn by the artist at this occasion, for example Horse Grazing, gifted in 1977 by the widow of Max Beckmann, Mathilde, to Peter Rathbone, son of the art museum director and friend of the artist Perry T. Rathbone, who prefers the title Horse Grazing, which takes the surrounding landscape in some consideration. The silhouette of the animal and its inner forms seem here in a state of growing disorganization, indication of the deeper change of style at this time. Beckmann develops now, under the impression of the war, a new artistic structure using sharply drawn angled forms instead of the smoother alignment used before.

We are grateful to Stephan von Wiese for providing us with the above catalogue note.