Max Beckmann: Landschaft mit Kühen [Landscape with Cows], Gemälde (1938)
Max Beckmann: Landschaft mit Kühen [Landscape with Cows], Gemälde (1938)
This painting is one of the Dutch landscape pictures painted by Max Beckmann while living in exile. The view from above shows the flat land and the crescent-shaped curve of a small canal, from which two more canals branch off to the left, where there is also a cluster of trees and a few houses, while a pasture landscape extends off to the right, populated by a few cows. Above all this a rather cloudy sky.
The artist loved nature and often traversed the immediate surroundings, and even the more distant surroundings of Amsterdam on his bicycle. It is, however, remarkable that he only painted relatively few pictures of this country during his ten years in exile in the Netherlands. This is even more remarkable as he created many more paintings of the French Mediterranean coast at this time from memory. It was from these memories that he created his 'Pictures of Longing', such as the Large Riviera Landscape in 1940.
Further reading:
Lenz, Christian: Schön und schrecklich wie das Leben. Die Kunst Max Beckmanns 1937 bis 1945. In: Max Beckmann. Exil in Amsterdam. Ausstellungskatalog. Amsterdam / München: Hatje Canz 2007/2008, S. 33-107
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