About the Artwork
Beckmann's artistic production probes the nature of the human condition. Beginning with the horrors of World War I and a series of crises Beckmann endured personally, his outlook grew increasingly pessimistic. In the early 1930s Beckmann was forced to give up his teaching position by political forces opposed to his modern and confrontational style. By the late 1930s intense persecution forced Beckmann to flee Germany for Amsterdam where he withstood the hardships of World War II. His jarring style enhances the brutal theme of this watercolor the savagery of humans. It is a preliminary study for a painting (Stephen Lackner Collection, Santa Barbara, California) In which the subject Is transformed into one of outright cannibalism. Harsh colors, strafing black lines, and crammed fantastic figures in frenzied spaces are characteristics of Beckmann's style.
Sacrificial Meal
1947
Max Beckmann
1884-1950
German
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Watercolor, pen and ink on paper with a laid-like texture
Sheet: 19 3/4 × 12 1/4 inches (50.2 × 31.1 cm) Framed: 24 1/8 × 30 1/8 × 7/8 inches (61.3 × 76.5 × 2.2 cm)
Drawings
Prints, Drawings & Photographs
Bequest of John S. Newberry
65.174
Restricted
Markings
Signed, in pen and black ink, lower right [within inscription]: Beckmann 4.Okt. 47 Signed, in pen and blue ink, on verso, at end of inscriptions: see inscriptions
Inscribed, in pen and black ink, lower right: Chase Hotel | Beckmann | 4.Okt. 47 | St. Louis Inscribed, in pencil, verso, upper left: Newberry Inscribed, upper right: Aus Speissgebraten 4. Okt. 4[ ] Inscribed, in pen and blue ink: "Opfermahl" Sacrificial | Meal | for Mr. Newberry | 2. Nov 47. St. Louis } pour souvenir- | Max Beckmann;
Watermark: [indecipherable]
Provenance
the artist, Max Beckmann;John S. Newberry (New York, New York, USA);
1965-present, bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Drawings and Watercolors from the Collection of John S. Newberry, Jr. Exh. cat., Buchholz Gallery. New York, 1948, no. 4.
Drawings and Watercolors XIX and XX Centuries from the Collection of John S. Newberry Jr. Exh. cat., Fogg Museum of Art. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1948, p. 21.
Max Beckmann. Exh. cat., City Art Museum of Saint Louis, Los Angeles County Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, Baltimore Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts. St. Louis, 1948, no. 89.
European and American Watercolors from the John S. Newberry Collection. Exh. cat., DIA. Detroit, 1960, no. 27.
Bulletin of the DIA 44, no. 4 (1965): pp. 68-69, (ill.).
Göpel Erhard and Barbara Göpel. Max Beckman Katalog der Gemälde. z vol. Bern, 1976, vl: 450.
Uhr, H. Masterpieces of German Expressionism in the Detroit Institiute of Arts. New York, 1982, p. 46 (ill.).
Uhr, H. German Drawings and Watercolors. New York, 1987, pp. 83-84, cat. no. 38 (ill.).
Beckmann, Mayen, Siegfried Gohr, and Max Hollein. Watercolors and Pastels: Catalogue Raisonné of Works in Color on Paper. Frankfurt, 2006, p. 373.
Schutt, Jutta, ed. Beckmann & America. Exh. cat., Stadel Museum. Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 2011, pp. 254-255, (fig. 133).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Max Beckmann, Sacrificial Meal, 1947, watercolor, pen and ink on paper with a laid-like texture. Detroit Institute of Arts, Bequest of John S. Newberry, 65.174.
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