Max Beckmann Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Max Beckmann was born in Leipzig in 1884. Beckmann was one of the great exponents of the New Objectivity, an artistic movement that took hold in Central Europe in the 1920s.


His artistic evolution was marked by German expressionism, which allowed him to translate the tragic human condition of his time into painting, and had a harsh, monumental style, focused on the representation of reality. Read the full biography

Max Beckmann was born in Leipzig in 1884. Beckmann was one of the great exponents of the New Objectivity, an artistic movement that took hold in Central Europe in the 1920s.


His artistic evolution was marked by German expressionism, which allowed him to translate the tragic human condition of his time into painting, and had a harsh, monumental style, focused on the representation of reality. He trained at the Weimar Academy from 1899 to 1903. During his career he traveled extensively, staying for the first time in Paris in 1903 where, on the occasion of the exhibition of French primitives (1904), he was particularly struck by the Avignon Pietà. After obtaining a scholarship to Florence in 1906, Beckmann settled in Berlin where he exhibited at the Secession and began to become known. In the 1920s he exhibited in several European cities, particularly Paris, and painted some of his most famous works such as “The Night” (1918-1919) and “Self-Portrait with a Red Scarf” (1917). In 1933, following the Nazis' rise to power, he moved to Amsterdam and subsequently to the United States where he spent the last years of his life.
Beckmann died in New York in 1950, today he is considered one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century.