Self-Portrait

Prints and Drawings

1917

Max Beckmann
German, 1884-1950

Beckmann’s 1917 self-portrait reflects his despair during the later war years. According to the inscription he added in the upper-right corner, this brooding image was drawn at four o’clock in the morning. The artist’s deep-set, blankly staring eyes are strangely quiet and contemplative compared to his quivering handling of the medium.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Max Beckmann
Title: Self-Portrait
Place: Germany (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1917
Medium: Pen and black ink on cream laid paper
Dimensions: 38.7 × 31.6 cm (15 1/4 × 12 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Allan Frumkin
Reference Number: 1975.1127
Copyright: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Stephan von Weise, Max Beckmann’s zeichnerisches Werk 1903-1925 (Dusseldorf, 1978), pp. 110, 121 and 211, no. 368.
Fritz Erpel, Max Beckmann: Leben im Werk, Die Selbstbildnisse (Berlin, 1985), no. 60 (ill.).
Peter Selz, Max Beckmann (New York, 1992), p. 26 and 116 (ill.).
Sandy Brooke, Hooked on Drawing (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1996), p. 258 (ill.).
Sandy Brooke, Drawings as Expression, Concepts and Techniques (2001).
Knut Soiné, ‘Christ Beckmann? On Max Beckmanns “Self-Portrait with the Red Scarf”, 1917’, Jahrbuch der staatlichen Kunstsalunen Baden-Württemberg (2002).

Bielefeld, Germany, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, “Max Beckmann: Aquarelle und Zeichnungen 1903 bis 1950,” October 16-December 11, 1977, cat. 71; traveled to Germany, the Kunsthalle Tübingen, January 7-February 26, 1978; and Frankfurt am Main, the Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, March 18-May 21, 1978.
Frankfurt am Main, Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, “Max Beckmann Frankfurt 1915-1933,” November 19, 1983-February 12, 1984, cat. 107.
Munich, Haus der Kunst, “Max Beckmann Retrospective,” 1984, cat. 151, cat. by Carla Schulz-Hoffmann, Judith C. Weiss, et. al.; traveled to the Nationalgaleire, Berlin, the St. Louis Art Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Great Drawings from The Art Institute of Chicago: The Harold Joachim Years 1958-1983,” July 24-September 30, 1985, pp. 188-189, cat. 87 (ill.), cat. by Martha Tedeschi; traveled to the St. Louis Art Museum, March 10-May 16, 1986.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Reflections of Weimer Germany: Portfolios by Max Beckmann and Lovis Corinth,” July 18-October 31, 1992.
Paris, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, “Rétrospective Max Beckmann;” traveled to New York, the Museum of Modern Art, June 25-September 30, 2003.
New York, Neue Galerie, “Max Beckmann: Formative Years, 1915-1925”, October 5, 2023 - January 15, 2024, p. 67 (ill.), cat. 15, cat. by Olaf Peters, et. al.

Sold by J. B. Neumann to Allan Frumkin, New York and Chicago, 1950s [a letter from Allan Frumkin of October 9, 2002 in curatorial file]; given by Mr. and Mrs. Allan Frumkin to the Art Institute, 1975.

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