This family portrait was made in Amsterdam towards the end of the Second World War. It was painted by the German artist Max Beckmann in the studio at his home in Rokin. Beckmann had fled to the Netherlands in 1937, after the Nazis condemned his work as degenerate (entartete Kunst) and banned him from exhibiting it in Germany. Beckmann led a solitary and difficult life in Amsterdam, but it was also a fruitful period in his career. In the ten years he spent there, he produced one third of his entire oeuvre.
His anchor and refuge during that time was Helmuth Lütjens, director of the Dutch branch of the German art firm Paul Cassirer. Beckmann portrayed Lütjens with his wife Nelly and their eighteen-month-old daughter Annemarie. The family is shown in the kitchen of the art gallery on Keizersgracht, which was also the space in which they lived. The painting, however, was executed in Beckmann’s studio. Beckmann worked from the quick pencil sketches he had made, not only of the adults but, in particular, of Annemarie. Lütjens saw the work only once it was finished. He was deeply moved and bought it on the spot.
Portrait of the Family Lütjens
Max Beckmann (in 1944)
Specifications
| Title | Portrait of the Family Lütjens |
|---|---|
| Material and technique | Oil on canvas |
| Object type |
Painting
> Painting
> Two-dimensional object
> Art object
|
| Location | This object is in storage |
| Dimensions |
Height 179,5 cm Width 85 cm |
|---|---|
| Artists |
Painter:
Max Beckmann
|
| Accession number | 3610 (MK) |
| Credits | Purchased with the support of Family Lütjens, FriendsLottery, Familiestichting Nolst Trenité, G.Ph. Verhagen-Foundation, municipality of Rotterdam, Marlene Dumas, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science , Ministry of Finance, Mondriaan Fund, Fonds 21, Stichting Bevordering van Volkskracht, Stichting Nationaal Fonds Kunstbezit, Rembrandt Association, Mr F.J. de Visser, VSBfonds. Shared ownership with Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands , 2009 |
| Department | Modern Art |
| Acquisition date | 2009 |
| Creation date | in 1944 |
| Internal exhibitions |
Max Beckmanns Familieportret (2010) The Collection Enriched (2011) De collectie als tijdmachine (2017) Lievelingen (2024) |
| External exhibitions |
Dix/Beckmann: The World as Myth (2013) Boijmans bij de Buren - Meesterlijk! (2019) Universum Max Beckmann (2024) Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen @ Rijksmuseum (2023) |
| Material | |
| Object |
All about the artist
Max Beckmann
Leipzig 1884 - New York 1950
Max Beckmann studied in Wiemar in 1900 and later left for Berlin. In 1906 he met the artist Edvard Munch and exhibited together with the Neue Sachlichkeit...
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