Max Beckmann
Still Life with Large Shell
1938
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Max Beckmann
Still Life with Large Shell
1938
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, 19 3/4 x 31 5/8 in. (50.2 x 80.3 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of William A. Dickey, Jr.
Object Number
1955.77
Known as a “painter’s painter,” Beckmann employed thick waxy paint and developed a personal style relying on compressed space and the ample use of black. While his imagery often brings together obscure mythology, theatrical references, and social critique, this painting has a more domestic theme, depicting the artist’s second wife, Mathilde Beckmann (1904-1986). She sits low in the picture, nearly eclipsed behind the wine glass and the erotically suggestive conch shell. The arrangement of the figure beside the decorative fabric recalls works by Henry Matisse (1869-1954), whose numerous odalisque paintings of the 1920s would have been familiar to Beckmann from his regular trips to Paris.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1955; William A. Dickey, Jr.; Buchholz Gallery, NY; Curt Valentin estate sale; Curt Valentin; the artist
Curt Valentin Gallery, NY, "Max Beckmann", January-February 1954, cat. 14, ill. p. 2.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Modern Art for Baltimore", February 23-March 17, 1957.
Norfolk Museum, Norfolk, Virginia, "German Expressionism", November 6-December 11, 1960.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "20th Century European Paintings and Sculpture", July 9-September 23, 1969.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Twentieth-Century Paintings from the Museum's Collection", March 14-April 5, 1981.
Nassau County Museum of Fine Art, Roslyn, NY, "Max Beckmann", October 21, 1984.
Kunsthaus Zurich, "An Encounter with Modernism: Max Beckmann in Paris: Works 1924-1950", * (title keeps changing on loan forms--see variant: "A Studio in Paris: Beckmann Encounters Matisse, Picasso and Thier Contemporaries") September 25, 1998-January 6, 1999; tour to St. Louis Art Museum, February 2, 1999-May 4, 1999.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "German Expressionism: A Revolutionary Spirit", Jan. 29 -Sept. 14, 2014 (pulled early to send to Hamburger Kunsthalle exhibition).
Hamburger Kunsthalle, "Max Beckmann. The Still Lifes", September 05, 2014-January 18, 2015.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Modern Art for Baltimore", February 23-March 17, 1957.
Norfolk Museum, Norfolk, Virginia, "German Expressionism", November 6-December 11, 1960.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "20th Century European Paintings and Sculpture", July 9-September 23, 1969.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Twentieth-Century Paintings from the Museum's Collection", March 14-April 5, 1981.
Nassau County Museum of Fine Art, Roslyn, NY, "Max Beckmann", October 21, 1984.
Kunsthaus Zurich, "An Encounter with Modernism: Max Beckmann in Paris: Works 1924-1950", * (title keeps changing on loan forms--see variant: "A Studio in Paris: Beckmann Encounters Matisse, Picasso and Thier Contemporaries") September 25, 1998-January 6, 1999; tour to St. Louis Art Museum, February 2, 1999-May 4, 1999.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "German Expressionism: A Revolutionary Spirit", Jan. 29 -Sept. 14, 2014 (pulled early to send to Hamburger Kunsthalle exhibition).
Hamburger Kunsthalle, "Max Beckmann. The Still Lifes", September 05, 2014-January 18, 2015.
"BMA News," Dec. 1955, ill. p. 16.
'Object of the Week,' "Sunday Sun" (Brown Sec.), Baltimore, Mar. 18, 1956, ill.
Karin Schick and Hubertus Gaßner, "Max Beckman: The Still Lifes," (Munich: Prestel Publishing), 2014, cover and p. 149 (color ill.).
Tiedemann, Anja. Max Beckmann: The Paintings. Hamburg: Hamburger Kunsthalle, 2021. Volume II, p. 113-115 (color ill.)
Inscribed: FACE: BRC, signed in black paint, '(Beckmann?)/39'
On View at the BMA
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