Lot Essay
The present work comes from a series of five street scenes which Beckmann painted in Berlin between 1909 and 1914 (G.&G. nos 123, 151, 167, 179 and 180). Like Kirchner (see lot 203), Beckmann was captivated by the sights and sounds of the heaving capital city.
"Beckmann was a man most at home in an urban, metropolitan environment - much later, when settling in New York in 1949, he spoke of the 'freedom of the large cities' - and Berlin at the beginning of the century was just coming into its own as a lively European capital. It was a tough, nervous, and often brutal kind of place - a relatively new city...full of vitality and energy" (P. Selz, 'Berlin 1903-1914', Max Beckmann, exh. cat., New York, 1965, p. 11).
Strasse bei Nacht can be related to a drawing which Beckmann executed of himself wandering down a Berlin street at night in 1912 (see illustration). Beckmann's diary from the Berlin years is littered with references to how much he enjoyed exploring the capital on foot. "Mink [Beckmann's nickname for his first wife Minna] and I took a wonderful walk through the mild evening ... The walk from the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum by way of the royal palace and Unter den Linden is always beautiful, if only it weren't for the damned cathedral and the repellent Kaiser Monument. Every time I see it I take it as an affront...It was good to...walk along the canal, in the still, clear, wintry night, to Potsdamer Platz. A fierce wind had blown the snow against all the branches and trunks of the trees. Everywhere, giant white snakes of electric light stood out brightly against the dark night sky" (Diary entries for 4, 12 and 29 January 1909, see ed. B. Copeland Buenger, Max Beckmann, Self-Portrait in Words, Collected Writings and Statements, 1903-1950, Chicago, 1997, pp. 94, 101 and 107).
Strasse bei Nacht was selected for inclusion in the pivotal exhibition held at the Städtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim, in the spring of 1928. The show, which consisted of over 200 works, was the first major one-man exhibition of Beckmann's work and was enthusiastically received by the critics. Benno Reifenberg declared "Wenn etwas die Bedeutung Beckmanns als Künstler erhellen kann, so ist es die Tatsache, dass in diesen rund 100 Bildern, die Mannheim jetzt zu einer überwältigenden Schau vereinigt hat, von Anfang an der Eigenwert der Bilder aufleuchtet, es gibt im Grund keine Nieten" (Frankfurter Zeitung, 9 March 1928).
Other Berlin works include Das Liebespaar (G.&G. 153) in the Städtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Abendwaldlandschaft (G.&G. 145) in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel and Gesellschaft (G.&G. 140) in the Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg, Halle.
"Beckmann was a man most at home in an urban, metropolitan environment - much later, when settling in New York in 1949, he spoke of the 'freedom of the large cities' - and Berlin at the beginning of the century was just coming into its own as a lively European capital. It was a tough, nervous, and often brutal kind of place - a relatively new city...full of vitality and energy" (P. Selz, 'Berlin 1903-1914', Max Beckmann, exh. cat., New York, 1965, p. 11).
Strasse bei Nacht can be related to a drawing which Beckmann executed of himself wandering down a Berlin street at night in 1912 (see illustration). Beckmann's diary from the Berlin years is littered with references to how much he enjoyed exploring the capital on foot. "Mink [Beckmann's nickname for his first wife Minna] and I took a wonderful walk through the mild evening ... The walk from the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum by way of the royal palace and Unter den Linden is always beautiful, if only it weren't for the damned cathedral and the repellent Kaiser Monument. Every time I see it I take it as an affront...It was good to...walk along the canal, in the still, clear, wintry night, to Potsdamer Platz. A fierce wind had blown the snow against all the branches and trunks of the trees. Everywhere, giant white snakes of electric light stood out brightly against the dark night sky" (Diary entries for 4, 12 and 29 January 1909, see ed. B. Copeland Buenger, Max Beckmann, Self-Portrait in Words, Collected Writings and Statements, 1903-1950, Chicago, 1997, pp. 94, 101 and 107).
Strasse bei Nacht was selected for inclusion in the pivotal exhibition held at the Städtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim, in the spring of 1928. The show, which consisted of over 200 works, was the first major one-man exhibition of Beckmann's work and was enthusiastically received by the critics. Benno Reifenberg declared "Wenn etwas die Bedeutung Beckmanns als Künstler erhellen kann, so ist es die Tatsache, dass in diesen rund 100 Bildern, die Mannheim jetzt zu einer überwältigenden Schau vereinigt hat, von Anfang an der Eigenwert der Bilder aufleuchtet, es gibt im Grund keine Nieten" (Frankfurter Zeitung, 9 March 1928).
Other Berlin works include Das Liebespaar (G.&G. 153) in the Städtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Abendwaldlandschaft (G.&G. 145) in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel and Gesellschaft (G.&G. 140) in the Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg, Halle.