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MAX BECKMANN (1884-1950) Tannenbaum geht nach New York (Tannenbaum goes to new york) signed and...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:600,000.00 - 800,000.00 USD
MAX BECKMANN (1884-1950) Tannenbaum geht nach New York (Tannenbaum goes to new york) signed and...

MAX BECKMANN

(1884-1950)

Tannenbaum geht nach New York (Tannenbaum goes to new york)

signed and dated “Herrn Dr. Tannenbaum Souvenir 4.3.47 Amsterdam” (upper left)

oil on canvas

96 x 35 cm (37 3⁄4 x 13 3⁄4 in.)

painted in 1947

Estimate: £400,000-600,000

$580,000–870,000




Provenance

Herbert and Maria Tannenbaum, New York (acquired from the artist in 1947)

By descent from the above to the present owner




Exhibited

New York, Grace Borgenicht Gallery, Max Beckmann: Paintings and Drawings, March 28-April 24, 1985, n.n. (as Bildnis Herbert Tannenbaum)

Mannheim, Reiss-Museum der Stadt Mannheim, Für die Kunst!-Herbert Tannenbaum und sein Kunsthaus, September 11, 1994-January 8, 1995, no. 125 (illustrated in colour, p. 73)




Literature

The Artist’s Handlist, Amsterdam, 1947

Benno Reifenberg and Wilhelm Hausenstein, Max Beckmann, Munich, 1949, no.617 (as Portrait Tannenbaum)

Erhard and Barbara Göpel, Max Beckmann, Katalog der Gemälde, Bern, 1976, vol. I, p. 443, no. 738; vol. II, pl. 271 (illustrated)
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In this charismatic portrait, Max Beckmann portrays Dr. Herbert Tannenbaum, a well known art historian and art dealer from Mannheim. Painted only a few months before the Tannenbaum family's departure from Amsterdam to New York in 1947, Beckmann depicts Dr. Tannenbaum clutching a “Tannenbaum” (fir tree) and a picture frame. These objects playfully reference both the name and trade of the sitter. In this painting, the artist masterfully captures the persona of his subject preparing to embark upon a new life.
Along with esteemed colleagues such as Alfred Flechtheim, Karl Nierendorf, Curt Valentin and Herwarth Walden, Tannenbaum fled from Nazi Germany in 1937. Establishing himself in Amsterdam he developed a new circle of friends including well-known German artists such as Heinrich Campendonk and Max Beckmann. Beckmann's diary notes that when Tannenbaum sat for this portrait the conversation between artist and patron revealed Beckmann’s ambiguity about his own emigration to America later that year. “Tannenbaum calmed my fears concerning export issues,” remarked Beckmann on January 2, 1947.