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Description: MAX BECKMANN
1884-1950
SELBSTBILDNIS MIT HORN
(SELF-PORTRAIT WITH HORN)
Signed and dated A.38
Oil on canvas
43 1/4 by 39 3/4 in. 109.9 by 101 cm.
Provenance
Dr. and Mrs. Stephan Lackner, Santa Barbara (acquired from the artist in 1938)
Exhibited
Amsterdam, Kunstzaal van Lier, Tentoonstelling van nieuwe verken door Max Beckmann, 1938
Pittsburgh, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, The 1939 International Exhibition of Paintings, 1939, no. 347
New York, Buchholz Gallery (Curt Valentin), Max Beckmann: Paintings 1936-1939, 1940, no. 10
The Arts Club of Chicago, Max Beckmann, 1942, no. 36
St. Louis, City Art Museum; Baltimore, Museum of Art; Cambridge, Harvard University, Busch-Reisinger Museum; Detroit, Institute of Arts; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; San Francisco, M. H. De Young Memorial Museum; Minneapolis, Institute of Arts; Boulder, University of Colorado Museum, Max Beckmann: 1948 Retrospective Exhibition, 1948, no. 26
St. Louis, City Art Museum, Federation Exhibition, 1949
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Musical Themes, 1952
The Santa Barbara Museum of Art; San Francisco, Museum of Art; The Pasadena Art Institute, Max Beckmann, 1955,
no. 35
Santa Barbara, University Art Gallery, University of California, Max Beckmann, 1959, no. 1
California, The Downey Museum of Art, Max Beckmann: Oils, Watercolors, Lithographs, 1960, no. 17
Karlsruhe, Badischer Kunstverein, Max Beckmann. Das Portrait, Gemalde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, 1963, no. 44
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; New York, The Museum of Modern Art; The Art Institute of Chicago; London, Tate Gallery, Max Beckmann 1884-1950: Paintings, drawings and graphic work, 1964-65, no. 48 (no. 49 in London)
Hamburg, Kunstverein; Frankfurt, Kunstverein, Max Beckmann, Gemalde Aquarelle Zeichnungen, 1965, no. 47
Bremen, Kunsthalle; Berlin, Akademie der Kunste; Karlsruhe, Badischer Kunstverein; Lucerne, Kunstmuseum; Linz, Neue Galerie der Stadt Wolfgang Gurlitt-Museum; Vienna, Wiener Secession, Max Beckmann, Gemalde und Aquarelle der Sammlung Stephan Lackner, USA; Gemalde, Handzeichnungen und Druckgraphik aus dem Besitz der Kunsthalle Bremen, 1966-67, no. 27
Munich, Haus der Kunst, Max Beckmann, 1968, no. 67
Paris, MusEe National d'Art Moderne; Munich, Haus der Kunst; Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Max Beckmann, 1968-69, no. 69
San Francisco, Museum of Art, Santa Barbara Collects, 1970, no. 4
London, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd.; New York, Marlborough Gallery, Inc., Max Beckmann, 1974-75, no. 26
Munich, Haus der Kunst; Berlin, Nationalgalerie; The Saint Louis Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Max Beckmann, Retrospective, 1984-85, no. 86
Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Kunste; Frankfurt, Kunstinstitut, Max Beckmann, Gemalde 1905-1950, 1990-91, no. 59
Hamburg, Kunsthalle; Munich, Staatsgalerie moderner Kunst, Max Beckmann, Selbstbildnisse, 1993, no. 20
New York, The Guggenheim Museum SoHo, Max Beckmann in Exile, 1996-97, no. 6
Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie, Exiles and EmigrEs: The Flight of European Artists from Hitler, 1997-98, no. 10
Literature
Max Beckmann handlist, 1938 (titled Selbstportrait mit Trompete (rotgestreift))
Kasper Niehaus, "Beckmann's expressionisme. Expositie bij van Lier van nieuwewerken," Telegraaf, Amsterdam, June 22, 1938
Dorothy Grafly, The American Magazine of Art, New York, 1939, illustrated p. 481 (selected by Grafly as one of the five significant paintings in the Carnegie Institute exhibition)
Helen Buchalter, The Magazine of Art, New York, November 1939, illustrated p. 633
Howard Devree, "A reviewer's notebook," The New York Times, January 7, 1940, illustrated section 9, p. 10
Pictures on exhibit, New York, January 1940, illustrated p. 29
Benno Reifenberg, Max Beckmann, Munich, 1949, no. 395, listed p. 75
Henry J. Seldis, "Arts and Artists," Santa Barbara News-Press, May 22, 1955, illustrated p. A-1
Die Kultur, Frankfurt, June 15, 1959, illustrated p. 9
Lothar-Gunther Buchheim, Max Beckmann, Feldafing, 1959, no. 69, illustrated p. 138 (titled Selbstportrat mit Trompete)
"Beckmann Exhibit, UCSB Art Gallery Open on Campus," Santa Barbara News-Press, Santa Barbara, September 17, 1959, photograph of Stephan Lackner with the present work p. A-8
Stephan Lackner, "Abhartung und Entzuckung," Der Monat, Berlin, December 1960, p. 64
Charles S. Kessler, "The Vision of Max Beckmann," Arts Yearbook 4, New York, 1961, illustrated p. 132
Stephan Lackner, Max Beckmann, Berlin, 1962, illustrated pl. 6
Erhard Gopel, "Max Beckmann - Das Portrat," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt, September 3, 1963, discussed p. 18
Erhard Gopel, "Max Beckmann als Portrat-Maler: Die Ausstellung im Badischen Kunstverein in Karlsruhe," Die Weltkunst, Munich, November 1, 1963, illustrated p. 15
Hilton Kramer, "The Place of Max Beckmann," Arts Magazine, New York, December 1964, illustrated p. 37
Peter Selz, Max Beckmann, New York, 1964, illustrated p. 64
Pictures on exhibit, New York, December 1964, illustrated p. 5
Frank Whitford, "Max Beckmann at the Tate Gallery," Arts Review, London, October 2, 1965, illustrated p. 2
Ewald Rathke, "Max Beckmann heute," Speculum artis, Constance, July 1965, illustrated p. 36
Peter H. Feist, "Max Beckmanns Bilder," Bildende Kunst, Berlin, March 1966, illustrated p. 138
Stephan Lackner, "Max Beckmann 'Der Regenbogen in meiner Tasche,' ein Sammler erzahlt," Epoca, Munich, February 2, 1967, illustrated p. 49
Stephan Lackner, "Max Beckmann, Ein Sammler erzahlt," Epoca, Munich, April 4, 1967, illustrated p. 66
Stephan Lackner, Ich erinnere mich gut an Max Beckmann, Mainz, 1967, discussed p. 34
Gunter Rombold, "Die Passion nach Max Beckmann,"Christliche Kunstblatter, Linz, October-December 1967, illustrated opposite p. 95
Frederick Zimmermann, Beckmann in America, New York, 1967, p. 15
Stephan Lackner, Max Beckmann, Bergisch Gladbach, 1968, illustrated pl. 6 and p. 8
Stephan Lackner, Max Beckmann: Memories of a Friendship, Coral Gables, 1969, illustrated p. 33
Charles S. Kessler, Max Beckmann's Triptychs, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1970, p. 19, illustrated on the frontispiece
Friedhelm Wilhelm Fischer, Max Beckmann, Symbol und Weltbild. Grundriss zu einer Deutung des Gesamtwerkes, Munich, 1972, illustrated p. 119ff
Arthur and Catherine Evans, "Max Beckmann's Self-Portraits," Arts International, November 1974, discussed p. 18
Scala International, Frankfurt, January 1974, illustrated p. 8
Stephan Lackner, "Uber Sekt und Cadaver der kleine Wahnsinn," Die Zeit, Hamburg, January 2, 1976, illustrated
Erhard and Barbara Gopel, Max Beckmann, Katalog der Gemalde, vol. I, Bern, 1976, no. 489, catalogued pp. 313-14 (with additional title Selbstbildnis mit Trompete (rotgestreift)), illustrated on the cover; vol. II, illustrated pls. 12, 170 and on the cover
Stephan Lackner, Max Beckmann, New York, 1977, no. 34, illustrated p. 139
Stephan Lackner, Peter Beckmann im Bild seines Vaters, Murnau, 1978, p. 122
Stephan Lackner, Max Beckmann, Naefels, Switzerland, 1983, illustrated
p. 61
Hans Belting, Die Tradition als Problem in der Kunst der Moderne, Munich, 1984, illustrated pl. 20
Hilton Kramer, "Rediscovering the Art of Max Beckmann," The New York Times, New York, August 19, 1984, illustrated
p. 33
Hildegard Zenser, Max Beckmann Selbstbildnisse, Munich, 1984, illustrated pl. 39 (titled Selbstbildnis mit Trompete)
Joachim Poeschke, Max Beckmann in seinen Selbstbildnissen, Esslingen am Neckar, 1984, illustrated on frontispiece
Fritz Erpel, Max Beckmann, Leben im Werk: die Selbstbildnisse, Berlin, 1985, no. 159, catalogued p. 347; illustrated p. 170
Hans Belting, Max Beckmann: Tradition as a Problem in Modern Art, New York, 1989, illustrated pl. 26
Peter Leonhardt, "Max Beckmanns Freund," Freitag, Berlin, September 21, 1990, photograph of Stephan Lackner with the present work
Stephan Lackner, Max Beckmann, London, 1991, no. 30, illustrated p. 107
Peter Selz, Max Beckmann: The Self-Portraits, New York, 1992, illustrated
p. 72
Max Beckmann, Gravures (1911-1946) (exhibition catalogue), MusEe de l'Abbaye Sainte-Croix des Sables d'Olonne, 1994, illustrated p. 40
Richard Spieler, Max Beckmann 1884-1950, The Path to Myth, Cologne, 1995, illustrated p. 125
Peter Selz, Max Beckmann, New York, 1996, no. 62, illustrated
Robert Hughes, "Scenes of Hellish Heat," Time, New York, December 16, 1996, illustrated p. 78
Sister Wendy Beckett, Beckmann and the Self, Munich, 1997, illustrated p. 58
Max Beckmann: Landschaft als Fremde (exhibition catalogue), Kunsthalle, Hamburg, 1998, fig. 2, illustrated p. 97
Christian Lenz, Stephan Lackner: der Freund Max Beckmanns (exhibition catalogue), Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen, Munich, 2000, fig. 18, illustrated p. 32
"Kunstlerfreund: Zum Tod von Stephan Lackner," Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurt, January 5, 2001, p. 43
Painted in Amsterdam in 1938 during Beckmann's exile from Nazi Germany, the vibrant and powerful Self-Portrait with Horn is one of the artist's most important self-portraits. While visiting Paris in 1938, Beckmann sold the painting for the modest sum of FF 1665 to his great friend and confidant, Stephan Lackner (see fig. 1). Lackner would proudly own Self-Portrait with Horn for the rest of his life, all the while considering this painting his favorite of the 70 works by Beckmann included in his esteemed collection. Critically acknowledged as one of the definitive works of the artist's canon, this painting was selected as the cover illustration for the Beckmann catalogue raisonnE by Erhard and Barbara Gopel and has been the subject of numerous scholarly texts.
In this work, the artist depicts himself alone in a confined, shallow space holding a Waldhorn, a German hunting horn, in his left hand and wearing a black-and-red striped housecoat, reminiscent of another housecoat worn in his Selbstbildnis mit Saxophonfrom 1930 (see fig. 2). The mood in the present composition is on the threshold between darkness and light, pessimism and hope, self-doubt and self-knowledge. Considered together, Beckmann's Selbstbildnis mit Saxophon and Selbstbildnis mit Horn provide a commentary on the artist's personal circumstances affected by a decade of political upheaval. The exuberance of the saxophone reflects the freedom and optimism of his time in Paris in the early 1930s, while the mournful horn rendered eight years later conjures up his exile from Germany. Peter Selz writes: "Now in exile [...], Beckmann's American saxophone becomes a German trumpet, which he holds close to his ear listening to what secret message it may have to reveal as he gazes into darkness with melancholy eyes..." (Peter Selz, Max Beckmann: The Self-Portraits, New York, 1992, p. 73).
In a series of key portraits and self-portraits from the 1920s and 1930s, Beckmann depicts himself and other sitters holding musical instruments that operate both as signs of music-making and as symbols of deeper meaning. Whilst in VariEtE (Quappi) from 1937 (see fig. 3) Beckmann depicts his adored wife in a positive mood, holding a banjo and smiling gently at the viewer, in the present work the horn bodies forth a medley of melancholy connotations: of being hunted, of mourning and of an all-embracing loneliness. This reading of the musical motif in Selbstbildnis mit Horn applies equally forcefully to the bugle that forms the centrepiece of Beckmann's masterpiece Tod of 1938 (see fig. 4), a work formerly in the Lackner Collection and now in the Nationalgalerie, Berlin. In this latter work, the bugle calls forth the death and destruction that dominates the scene and which Beckmann echoes in Selbstbildnis mit Horn, painted in his geographical and artistic exile.
In her essay about Selbstbildnis mit Horn in the 1984-85 retrospective exhibition catalogue, Cornelia Stabenow considers its wealth of meaning and symbolism: "This self-portrait can be interpreted on three levels: as a glimpse of someone blindly trapped within the circumstances of his personal life; as an image of the unknown fate of mankind; and finally as a representation of the artist, who remains existentially committed to mystery and inspiration. The three circular forms of the funnel opening, the clutching hand, and the powerful face are linked forcefully together in close sequence, while the glowing gold frame encloses the face from above. Free of the extroverted role-playing of the earlier self-depictions, Beckmann becomes a stranger to himself and a medium" (Max Beckmann, Retrospective(exhibition catalogue), Haus der Kunst, Munich; Nationalgalerie, Berlin; The Saint Louis Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984-85, p. 272).
Captivated by Beckmann's mystique, Stephan Lackner once characterized the artist's appearance as "[A] penetrating eminence whose powerful body and cliff-like head seemed to dominate the company" (Stephan Lackner, Ich erinnere mich gut an Max Beckmann, Mainz, 1967, pp. 5-6). Lackner, born Ernest Gustave Morgenroth in Paris in 1910, spent much of his childhood in Germany and was a poet, playwright, novelist, journalist, violinist and scholar. Through sheer passion for freedom of expression and his intractable belief in the older man's vision throughout both of their lifetimes, Lackner became arguably Beckmann's most important patron. Although Lackner first met Beckmann towards the end of the 1920s when he was a student and the artist had already achieved both critical and public success, it was in 1933 that the two would commence their relationship of intertwined friendship, patronage and scholarship. Experiencing the turmoil and persecution of war-torn Europe, both men became steadfast in their commitment to artistic freedom and began to support each other in their outstanding intellectual and artistic pursuits. Thus emerged a great friendship and relationship of mutual repect between the two men that spanned more than two decades. Lackner's spectacular collection of Beckmann's masterpieces, including Selbstbildnis mit Horn and Bildnis Stephan Lackner is a testament to the profound respect between the artist and the writer, a friendship solidified by a deeply rooted devotion to artistic individualism.
Stephan Lackner writes beautifully and perceptively of the mood in Selbstbildnis mit Horn, which he studied so closely and intensely in the more than fifty years he owned the painting: "In Self-Portrait with Horn, a very lonely man stares out of the canvas. The painting is among the most melancholy, and perhaps the deepest, of Beckmann's many studies of his own persona... The man does not look at himself in the mirror, nor at the spectator before the canvas; his gaze follows the resonance of a horn call, which he has just sent out like a message. He seems to listen for a distant echo. But there is no response, only a great silence... Here is a man forsaken by his time. No furnishings, no amenities of civilization, just an empty frame remains behind him. His strange, timeless costume seems to combine harlequin and convict associations. The richly colored stripes are a marvel of pure painterly accomplishment, almost reverting to some organic phenomenon of nature. Their rippling rhythm is reminiscent of sound waves; their full, soft color corresponds to the timbre of the horn call"(Stephan Lackner, Max Beckmann, New York, 1977, p. 138).
The type of horn that Beckmann holds was a traditional symbol of German Romanticism, and indeed the important collection of German folk poems undertaken during the Romantic period was called Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The artist had been stimulated into employing this motif after he saw the painting Halali by Gustave Courbet, in which a party, after a successful hunt, is being called together by the sound of a hunting horn. After seeing the work, Beckmann wrote: "A strangely quiet, concentrated mood pervades the painting. The piqueur becomes a symbolic figure as he blows his triumph out from the picture. Something like renunciation after a beautiful, clear victory emerges" (Klaus Gallwitz, Max Beckmann, Gemalde 1905-1950, Stuttgart, 1990, p. 164).
Selbstbildnis mit Horn can be read as a silent victory call after a very particular 'hunt': through his craft and artistry, Beckmann has escaped the clampdown of the National Socialist regime and the increasingly constraining opprobrium under which many of his fellow artists in Germany were working and living. Lackner writes: "An earlier stage of this work [see fig. 5] - which has been preserved in a photograph - presents a mysteriously smiling face, apparently enchanted by the horn's melody. Later on the bitterness of the times overcame the artist. With Hitler at the gate there was really nothing to smile about" (Lackner, Max Beckmann, New York, 1977,
p. 138).
Selbstbildnis mit Horn is a wonderfully affirmative statement of artistic freedom and human liberty that is answered by the dark silence emanating from the forces in Europe that were questioning these basic rights. The vibrant, blood reds and the deep blacks that surround the artist embody this human drama in an unforgettably powerful and visceral way. The golden frame-halo behind Beckmann's head seems to suggest that his role as a witness, as conjurer for a generation of the oppressed, is indeed a noble and timeless one.