Details
MAX BECKMANN (1884-1950)
Weit ausschreitender männlicher Rückenakt ('Standing male Nude seen from behind, Legs wide apart')
signed, dated and inscribed Verwik Juni 15 Beckmann (lower right)
pencil on paper
24,3 x 31,4 cm. (912 x 1238)
Drawn in June 1915
Provenance
With Graphisches Kabinett J.B. Neumann, Berlin; on consignment in 1918.
Walter Carl (1884-1956) & Käthe Carl (b. 1887), Frankfurt am Main; acquired during the Mannheim exhibition in 1918; until at least July 1961.
Withy Carl Richartz, Amsterdam; possibly on consignment.
Kornfeld & Klipstein, Bern, 17 June 1965, lot 43.
Acquired at the above sale; then by descent to the present owners.
Literature
S. von Wiese, Max Beckmanns zeichnerisches Werk 1903-1925, Düsseldorf, 1978, no. 293, p. 205, ill.fig. 58, p. 75 (titled 'Stehender männlicher Rückenakt mit weit gegrätschtem Schritt').
D. Schubert, Max Beckmann - Auferstehung und Erscheinung der Toten, Worms, 1985, p. 9, ill. fig. 36.
R. Rumold & O.K. Werckmeister (eds)., The Ideological Crisis of Expressionism - The Literary and Artistic German War Colony in Belgium 1914-1918, Colombia, 1990, p. 261.
K. Hille, Spuren der Moderne - Die Mannheimer Kunsthalle von 1918 bis 1933, Berlin, 1994, notes 73 & 74, p. 375 (titled 'schreitender Mann') & no. 27, p. 317 (titled 'Schreitender Mann' and incorrectly dated '1916').
Max Beckmann, Meisterwerke 1907-1950, exh. cat., Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, 1994, p. 79 ill. (titled 'Stehender männlicher Rückenakt mit weit gegrätschtem Schritt').
H. Guratzch (ed.), Max Beckmann - Zeichnungen aus dem Nachlass Mathilde Q. Beckmann, exh. cat., Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, 1998, p. 96, footnote 4.
C. Schönjahn, '»Alea est jacta« Max Beckmanns Auseinandersetzung mit dem Ersten Welt­krieg in seinen (Auf-)Zeichnungen', in: Max Beckmann - der Zeichner, exh. cat, Kunstmuseum, Albstadt, 2001, p. 54, ill. fig. 6.
H. Finke & S. von Wiese, Max Beckmann - Werkverzeichnis der Zeichnungen, vol. I, 1899-1916, Munich, 2026, no. 608, p. 510 ill..
Exhibited
Berlin, Ausstellungshaus am Kurfürstendamm, Freie Secession, April - September 1916, no. 42, p. 11, ill. p. 14 (titled 'Stehender männlicher Akt').
Munich, Münchener Neue Secession, III. Ausstellung, June - October 1917, no. 12, p. 15 (titled 'Schreitender Mann').
Mannheim, Graphischen Kabinett der Mannheimer Kunsthalle, Beckmann-Grafikausstellung, April - May 1918, no. 27 (titled 'Schreitender' and incorrectly dated '1916'; no cat.)
Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Max Beckmann - Zeichnungen und Aquarelle, February - March 1954 (no cat.).
Bielefeld, Kunsthalle, Max Beckmann - Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, 1903-1950, October - December 1977, no. 53, ill. fig. 55; this exhibition later travelled to Tübingen, Kunsthalle, January - February 1978; and Frankfurt, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, March - May 1978, no. 53, p. 36 , ill. (titled 'Stehender männlicher Rückenakt mit gegrätschtem Beinen').
Hamburg, Kunstverein, Der Zeichner und Grafiker Max Beckmann, September - November 1979, no. 29, p. 134 (titled 'Stehender männlicher Rückenakt mit weit gegrätschtem Schritt'); this exhibition later travelled to Darmstadt, Kunsthalle, January - February 1980.
Frankfurt, Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, Max Beckmann, Frankfurt 1915-1933, November 1983 - February 1984, no. 103, p. 194, ill. p. 196 (titled 'Stehender männlicher Rückenakt mit weit gegrätschtem Schritt').
Hamburg, Kunsthalle, Aus der Werkstatt des Künstlers - Druckgraphik und vorbereitenden Zeichnungen der Sammlung Hegewisch, Part II, April - September 2000, p. 104, ill. p. 62 (titled 'Stehender männlicher Rückenakt mit weit gegrätschtem Schritt').
Hamburg, Ernst Barlach Haus, Max Beckmann - Krieg - Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik 1913-1919, November 2000 - January 2001, no. 4, p. 30, ill. p. 16 (titled 'Stehender männlicher Rückenakt mit weit gegrätschtem Schritt'); this exhibition later travelled to Berlin, Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum, January - March 2001.
Hamburg, Kunsthalle, Max Beckmann - Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik aus der Sammlung Hegewisch, November 2005 - February 2006, no. 11, pp. 36 & 157, ill. pl. 9, p. 37 (titled 'Stehender männlicher Rückenakt mit gegrätschtem Beinen').
St Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, Max Beckmann - Works from Museums and Private Collections in Hamburg and Lübeck, November 2007 - January 2008, no. 12, p. 63 ill. (titled 'Stehender männlicher Rückenakt mit gegrätschtem Beinen').
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Lot Essay

Weit ausschreitender männlicher Rückenakt relates closely to Beckmann's monumental unfinished painting Auferstehung, begun in 1916 and now in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, as well as the 1918 pen and ink drawing of the same title (lot 227). Conceived shortly after his discharge from military service, Auferstehung abandons the conventions of Beckmann's earlier Resurrection scene (1908-09), transposing the biblical subject to a war-ravaged city where figures emerge from the ruins in a vision of suffering and renewal. The striding male nude in the present drawing appears in the upper right of both the Stuttgart painting and the associated pen and ink drawing. For another preparatory drawing of the same scene and closely related to the present sheet, see lot 307, a sketch of the central Christ-like figure in the Auferstehung compositions.
This drawing, as well as the following lot, once belonged to the collectors Walter and Käthe Carl, who were amongst the first patrons of Max Beckmann in Frankfurt. Walter Carl was Friedel Battenberg's brother, and it was undoubtedly through this connection that they got to know the artist. A very fine double portrait of the couple painted in 1918 is on permanent loan to the Städel Museum in Frankfurt (inv. no. LG76).

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