Weibliche Bildnisstudie im Profil (Female Portrait Study, Profile) [p. 30] 1918 - 1919

This is “Female Portrait Study, Profile” by Max Beckmann, an undated sketch on graph paper. Beckmann, who lived through both World Wars, often depicted distorted figures in chaotic scenes to express the horrors of war and the alienation of modern life. In this sketch, we see an artist working out the basic lines of a head in profile, perhaps thinking about the geometry of form, or maybe even the emotional content that can be communicated through a single, carefully observed line. The use of graph paper, more commonly associated with technical drawing, suggests that Beckmann may have been interested in deconstructing the traditional portrait. How might we understand this, given the institutions of art that Beckmann would have known? Was he critiquing the art academy, the commercial gallery, or the grand museum? To understand Beckmann better, scholars might consult his diaries and letters, as well as the writings of his contemporaries. Art is always contingent on social and institutional context, and so the role of the historian is to try to reconstruct that context as fully as possible.