Max Beckmann’s list of paintings
Max Beckmann’s list of paintings
Was mir New York und die noch kommenden Tage meines Lebens noch bringen werden, soll in Heft III aufgezeichnet werden. Ob es noch der Mühe lohnt? – angefangen 1904 in Berlin Hermsdorf (I. Heft) Beendet 1949 in New York (II. Heft).
[What New York and the remaining days of my life will bring me will be recorded in jotter III. Is it even worth the effort? – begun in 1904 in Berlin Hermsdorf (jotter I) ended in 1949 in New York (jotter II) (ed. trans.)]
Max Beckmann, List of paintings, 1949
Three black oilcloth jotters remain in which Max Beckmann kept his list of paintings. Jotter 1 begins with the first ambitious and large-format work Young Men by the Sea from 1905. Although Beckmann had done almost twenty oil paintings before this, he had not yet presented them to the public. Jotter 2 presented here begins in January 1934. On page 8 recto, he succinctly describes his situation since summer 1937: “Amsterdam 1937 an émigré since 17 July.” On the following page, [page 8 reverso], he adds the word “émigré” as if it were a suffix to his place of residence, Amsterdam. This jotter containing his list of paintings differs from Jotter 1 in that, in addition to a list of the completed paintings and their owners, it also contains diary entries and sketches.
When Beckmann received his first export permit for paintings destined for the USA – for the exhibition at New York’s Buchholz Gallery Curt Valentin from April to May 1946 – he commented on this in his list of paintings as follows: “1946 Novo Centissimo - 10 January 1946 received export permit for the show in New York This means that the world begins again where it left off in the late autumn of 1932 in Frankfurt a/M 14 years exilé et condamné and now free again, let’s see how things develop [below that] Novo Centissimo »1946« in Amsterdam 1 March 46: on 1 February Valentin purchased paintings for 6,000 dollars” [page 17 recto].
In St. Louis, the painter noted down his new status as a “real mezzo Americain” in autumn 1948 [page 19 verso]. The last of the three jotters only contained three pages with lists of paintings and after Beckmann died on 27 December 1950, Mathilde Q. Beckmann continued the list.
Gallery
