Lot Essay
Having seen some ten of his paintings and as many drawings included in the infamous Entartete Kunst exhibition held in Munich, and having heard Hitler's vehement speech against modern art marking the inauguration of the 'Haus der Deutschen Kunst', Beckmann and his wife Quappi left Germany for Amsterdam on 19 July 1937. Beckmann eventually found an apartment on two floors at Rokin 85, where he set up a studio in an old tobacco storeroom. The couple remained there, trapped for most of the time by the War, until 1947. However "despite considerable privations and some dangers, especially during the last months of the German occupation, there were amongst his most productive years. accounting for one third of his total output of paintings" (P. Vergo, The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection of Twentieth-Century Painting, London, 1992, p. 38).
In Akademie II Beckmann chose to depict one of the most traditional of subjects, the academic life-class model, in a wholly untraditional and expressive manner. At virtually the same time he painted a more staid version of the subject, Akademie I (G.&G.664) (fig. 1). Erhard and Barbara Göpel point out that in his various diary entries of 1944 which mention an 'Akademie' painting, it is virtually impossible to distinguish to which of the two works Beckmann is referring. In the present work, Beckmann deliberately painted the male model in an unusual pose to emphasize his powerful physique whilst positioning him within an almost circus-ring like setting, as if the model were performing to the art students who are glimpsed at the edges of the canvas.
Akademie II first belonged to Dr Helmuth Lütjens, an art dealer based in Amsterdam, who, with his wife Nelly, provided the exiled Beckmann and Quappi with considerable help during the War. "Perhaps most important during the war years...were his friendships with Erhard Göpel and Helmuth Lütjens...Dr Lütjens had been director of Paul Cassirer's Amsterdam branch since the twenties. During the War and their years of great need and poverty he helped make the Beckmanns' life bearable. In the autumn of 1944 there are thirteen entries in Beckmann's diary registering his concentrated work on the portrait of the Lütjens family...During that last desperate winter of the war Lütjens bought many paintings, stored the largest works and invited the Beckmann's to stay with him in his house" (P. Selz, 'Amsterdam, the War Years, 1940-1947', Max Beckmann, exh. cat., New York, 1964/5, pp. 75-76, see fig. 2).
It is likely that it was through the auspices of Lütjens that Akademie II was included in the first major post-war exhibition of Beckmann's work, mounted at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam between September and October 1945. Other works exhibited included Vor dem Kostümfest (Drei Frauen) (G.&G.696) housed in the Landesmuseum, Mainz and Les Artistes mit Gemüse (G.&G.626) housed in the University of Washington Gallery of Art. The Stedelijk show was the first in a line of prestigious exhibitions for which Akademie II was selected, once the work had crossed the Atlantic into the hands of the celebrated New York art dealer, Curt Valentin.
In Akademie II Beckmann chose to depict one of the most traditional of subjects, the academic life-class model, in a wholly untraditional and expressive manner. At virtually the same time he painted a more staid version of the subject, Akademie I (G.&G.664) (fig. 1). Erhard and Barbara Göpel point out that in his various diary entries of 1944 which mention an 'Akademie' painting, it is virtually impossible to distinguish to which of the two works Beckmann is referring. In the present work, Beckmann deliberately painted the male model in an unusual pose to emphasize his powerful physique whilst positioning him within an almost circus-ring like setting, as if the model were performing to the art students who are glimpsed at the edges of the canvas.
Akademie II first belonged to Dr Helmuth Lütjens, an art dealer based in Amsterdam, who, with his wife Nelly, provided the exiled Beckmann and Quappi with considerable help during the War. "Perhaps most important during the war years...were his friendships with Erhard Göpel and Helmuth Lütjens...Dr Lütjens had been director of Paul Cassirer's Amsterdam branch since the twenties. During the War and their years of great need and poverty he helped make the Beckmanns' life bearable. In the autumn of 1944 there are thirteen entries in Beckmann's diary registering his concentrated work on the portrait of the Lütjens family...During that last desperate winter of the war Lütjens bought many paintings, stored the largest works and invited the Beckmann's to stay with him in his house" (P. Selz, 'Amsterdam, the War Years, 1940-1947', Max Beckmann, exh. cat., New York, 1964/5, pp. 75-76, see fig. 2).
It is likely that it was through the auspices of Lütjens that Akademie II was included in the first major post-war exhibition of Beckmann's work, mounted at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam between September and October 1945. Other works exhibited included Vor dem Kostümfest (Drei Frauen) (G.&G.696) housed in the Landesmuseum, Mainz and Les Artistes mit Gemüse (G.&G.626) housed in the University of Washington Gallery of Art. The Stedelijk show was the first in a line of prestigious exhibitions for which Akademie II was selected, once the work had crossed the Atlantic into the hands of the celebrated New York art dealer, Curt Valentin.