Monte Carlo (Südliche Hafenstadt)

Details

Max Beckmann (1884-1950)
Monte Carlo (Südliche Hafenstadt)
signed and dated 'Beckmann 36' (lower right)
oil on canvas
23 5/8 x 42 3/8in. (60 x 107.7cm.)
Painted in 1936

Provenance

Acquired directly from the Artist by Barbara Kempner.

Literature

The Artist's Handlist, 1936 (as 'Monte Carlo').
B. Reifenberg and W. Hausenstein, Max Beckmann, Munich, 1949, no. 442 (as 'Südliche Hafenstadt', incorrectly dated 1940, illustrated fig. 68).
K. Piper, Nach fünfzig Jahren, Munich, 1954 (illustrated next to p. 177).
E. & B. Göpel, Max Beckmann, Katalog der Gemälde, vol. I, Berne, 1976, no. 438, p. 288 (illustrated vol. II, pl. 1489).

Exhibited

Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Max Beckmann, Sept.-Oct. 1968, no. 61 (as 'Port Méridional' and dated 1936). This exhibition later travelled to Munich, Haus der Kunst, Nov. 1968-Jan. 1969, no. 59 (as 'Südliche Hafenstadt', illustrated) and Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Jan-March, 1969, no. 161 (listed in the catalogue but withdrawn prior to exhibition by lender).

Lot Essay

In 1933 the National Socialist party came to power in Germany. A difficult period began for Beckmann who until then was championed not only by Paul Cassirer, J.B. Neumann, Alfred Flechtheim and Curt Valentin but also by Julius Meier-Graefe, Reinhard Piper and Günther Franke. He was forced to leave his teaching position at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut of Frankfurt and his work was declared 'degenerate' and removed from museums. As a result, he decided to move to Berlin, where the metropolis offered him a greater chance of privacy and anonymity.

Monte Carlo is one of only two paintings that Beckmann painted of the Mediterranean in 1936 before he fled from Germany to Holland in 1937.

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