Biography

Max Beckmann was born in Leipzig, Germany on February 12, 1884. He refined his artistic talents from 1900 to1903 at the Weimar Academy where he studied under Hans von Maree's supervision. In the year 1904, Beckmann left Weimar and headed to Berlin. There he was greatly influenced by Impressionists, such as Louis Carinth and the Expressionist Edvart Munch. He lived through both World Wars. His artwork received the Nazis title of “degenerate,” which cost him his job at the Städel School of Art in Frankfurt. In 1937, he fled from Germany to Amsterdam, to escape the intolerable conditions.

The Influences

Beckmann lived during the two greatest wars of this century. Most significant to him was the First World War. It was during this war that Beckmann discovered the meaning of German Expressionism. This was significant because it allowed him to express “his symbolic commentary on the tragic events of the 20^th Century" (Britannica.com).

Beckmann served as a medical corpsman in eastern Prussia, Flanders, and Strasbourg, during the First World War. His experiences during the war “led him to produce highly dramatic and energetic paintings characterized by heavy outlines, areas of harsh color, and an unrelenting savagery" (Encarta 97).

“The Night” is one of Beckmann's most exemplary works of the war period. The lengthy brush strokes of red and black and the harshness and mistreatment of human flesh are the elements that create “a scene of nightmarish sadism, and the disquieting colours and violent forms convey Beckmann's pessimism over man’s bestiality" (Britanica.com).

“The shock of exposure to dead and maimed soldiers changed [Beckmann's] art, filling it with sordid, often horrifying imagery that characterizes his mature works" (Britanica.com).