Max Beckmann (1884-1950)

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.