Max Beckmann: Georg Swarzenski, drawing (1950)
Max Beckmann: Georg Swarzenski, drawing (1950)
Ich hatte Beckmann seit vor dem Sommer nicht gesehen, und im Dezember machte er eine grosse, grossartige, Porträtzeichnung von mir, die, ohne mein Wissen als Geburtstagsüberraschung gedacht war. – Genau 14 Tage nach der Sitzung war das funeral. [Der Künstler war am 27. Dezember 1950 gestorben.] Ich hatte ihn bei diesem ungeahnt letzten Zusammensein körperlich sehr, fast erschreckend, mitgenommen gefunden, ich schob es aber auf die Spannung der Arbeit; er war nach der Sitzung so erschöpft wie ich ihn nie vorher gesehen hatte. – Für ihn ist der plötzliche ungeahnte Tod eine Fügung, für die man dankbar sein muss.
[I hadn't seen Beckmann since before the summer, and in December he drew a large, excellent portrait of me, which was intended as a birthday surprise, although I did not know it. – The funeral was exactly 14 days later. [The artist died on 27 December 1950.] In this, unknowingly our last meeting, I found him to be physically very much the worse for wear, almost alarmingly so, but I attributed this to the strain of his work; he was more exhausted after I had sat for him than I had ever seen him. – For him, sudden, unexpected death was an act of providence, for which one must be thankful. (ed. trans.)]
Georg Swarzenski in a letter to Lilly von Schnitzler dated 18 February, 1951
Georg Swarzenski was born in Dresden on 11 January, 1876 and studied law followed by art history, archaeology and music. He completed both degrees with a doctorate. From 1906 until 1938, he was director of the Städelsche Kunstinstitut art museum (now Städel Museum) in Frankfurt am Main. He founded the Städtische Galerie there in 1906 and opened the nearby Liebighaus as a sculpture exhibition in 1909. He purchased works by Max Beckmann for the Städtische Galerie from an early stage, and had his portrait drawn by him several times. Swarzenski was also general director of the city's museums in Frankfurt from 1928 to 1933. After the Nazis came to power, he was forced to retire from his post as general director in 1933 due to his Jewish origins, even though he was Protestant. He was also forced into retirement from the Städelsche Kunstinstitut in 1938. That same year, Swarzenski emigrated to the USA and became an art history professor in Princeton. From 1939 to 1957, he was a research fellow for medieval art and sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He and Max Beckmann met again several times in the USA. Georg Swarzenski died in Boston on 14 June, 1957.
Max Beckmann's portrait of Swarzenski was used as a frontispiece for his 75th birthday commemorative publication. In the original, Beckmann used blue paper and drew Swarzenski’s face almost straight-on using charcoal. However, his gaze doesn't penetrate through his glasses so much as withdraw into his interior, thus clearly depicting the etherealness of elderly academics.
Gallery
