Description:
Standing old woman, seated woman to right, young child (boy?) on horse with bow and arrow; outside; city, moon, and star in upper right; man leaning out window in upper left with eyes closed
Label Text:
Max Beckman’s work is complex and personal. As a German artist working during two major world wars he struggled to make sense of his society. Beckmann was condemned by the Nazis as a degenerate artist, and was forced to flee the country to the Netherlands. Nevertheless he persisted in recording the chaotic world around him.
In this family portrait Beckmann includes himself, his wife, his son, and his mother-in-law. The composition is somewhat claustrophobic, a characteristic of much of Beckmann’s work. Beckmann studied the old Northern masters closely and many of his compositions reflect this influence. He often transposed Northern traditional compositional styles onto his own modern inventions, thereby creating a direct link with the past and simultaneously re-claiming their symbolism. Depictions of the Holy Family by Dürer and after Jordaens which is in the Smith collection make interesting comparisons to Beckmann’s family portrait.
HKDV
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1958.129 |
