Siesta, Sex and Cigarettes
New in the collection:
Max Beckmann
Siesta
Etching on Velin
19,8 x 39,2 cm
1923
Signed and numerated
Printed by Heinrich Wetteroth, Munich, publised by R. Piper & Co., Munich.
Provenence: Collection Hans Kinkel (Stuttgart), Karin & Rüdiger Volhard, Bad Homburg (2000), auctioned 2025
This is a very expressive etching with concise lines. The man in the background, Beckmann himself, makes the setting special. The context is clear. Early afternoon, erotic posing by Minna Beckmann-Tube (1881-1964), no pictoral masturbation, Beckmann smoking next to the window. Despite being connected for the rest of their lives, Beckmann and Minna were technically married, but not a couple living together. Minna stayed in Berlin with Peter, their son, Beckmann worked and lived in Frankfurt. Beckmann painted the same scene one year later in oil (1924, Göpel 353, Mayen Beckmann Archive), showing the protagonists in a much more tender version and he did not depict the raw sexuality that is in this etching, Beckmann almost like an animal. Hence Beckmann overpainted Minna’s head in the oil painting with the features of his second wife, Quappi (Mathilde) Beckmann (1904–1986).
The piece came with a frame that must be 100 years old.
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