On 4 August 1937, Max Beckmann writes from Amsterdam to writer and collector Stephan Lackner that he will have a new studio at his disposal the next day, also explaining: “I want to stay here for now, then maybe move on to Paris later on. For the interim, Amsterdam is not bad.” On 26 April 1939, the painter informs Lackner that he has received his Carte d’Idenité for France, and a few days later he tells Valentin that his permanent move to Paris has been finalised for 1 August. Nevertheless, he writes to I. B. Neumann on 1 May: “I am very interested in l’Amerique, and will surely end up there one day.” When the War started on 1 September, he actually found himself in Holland, trapped.

Beckmann had managed to have all his furniture and paintings quickly transported to Amsterdam. The painter was therefore able to complete works he had begun and create new versions of others. In Paris he created a separate group of paintings, and also in the ten Amsterdam years.

We are relatively well informed about this period through the artist’s diary, his letters and the reports of his contemporaries. Beckmann created an astonishing number of important works in Amsterdam, in spite of the increasingly difficult living conditions after the start of the War on 1 September 1939 and the occupation of Holland by German troops from 10 May 1940 onwards. This productivity can also be explained by the fact that Beckmann knew relatively few people in this period, so the artist was able to concentrate particularly well on his work.

The diary reports on this creativity, and the works that remain bear witness to it. Paintings of resistance, in the narrow sense, are fewest in number among them. Max Beckmann had attained a world-view in which, regardless of love for humanity, nature and the simple things in life, the metaphysical sphere was of the greatest significance. Is there a life after death? Is there reincarnation over longer periods? Who are the gods or demons that play with us? How can I become a self? His thinking circled around such questions, and the images that seeped into his work reflect this.