Die Nacht, 1918–1919
Max Beckmann
Information
Artist
Max Beckmann
1884
Leipzig, Deutschland
1950
New York, USA
Work data
Material/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
Image: 134 × 155 cm
Frame: 134 × 155 × 2,5 cm
Signature
Bez. u. halbl.: "August 18 - März 19 Beckmann"
Accession Number
0140
Catalogue Raisonné
Göpel 200
Acquisition year
1963
Provenance
The painting “Die Nacht” was purchased from Max Beckmann in January 1920 by the art dealer J. B. Neumann, possibly with the financial support of his financier Heinrich Fromm, a hop merchant and Beckmann collector from Munich. A previous transfer or possible ownership by the Frankfurt antiquarian bookseller Walter Carl (1884-1956) can as yet only be ascertained from Erhard and Barbara Göpel’s catalogue raisonné. In 1922, Neumann brokered “Die Nacht” to a Berlin collector named Max Grünbaum in whose ownership the work verifiably remained until about 1926 before it was sold, probably on his behalf, a year later. In December 1927, the Berlin gallery Goldschmidt-Wallerstein liquidated an unnamed Berlin art collection, which included “Die Nacht,” as part of a sales exhibition. According to the catalog, a buyer had already been found for the painting at the time. It was presumably Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, which represented Max Beckmann from 1927 to 1930 together with J. B. Neumann and his Graphisches Kabinett in Munich, for this is where “Die Nacht” can be located from February 1928 at the latest. It is certain that the art dealer owned half of the painting together with J. B. Neumann by March 1932 at the latest, as Neumann made Alfred Flechtheim an offer to buy all of Beckmann’s works in February 1932. Flechtheim, who for financial reasons had not extended his representation of Beckmann with his gallery in October 1930, accepted this offer in a letter dated March 14, 1932 specifically citing the painting “Die Nacht.” Whether the deal was legally concluded is disputed by researchers due to a lack of evidence. What is certain is that with Flechtheim’s knowledge and consent the painting was in the Graphisches Kabinett in Munich, managed by Günther Franke, during the negotiations. Franke had become a partner in the art dealership in 1930 and between 1930 and 1932 used not only the name “Graphisches Kabinett” in public but also the name “Galerie J. B. Neumann u. Guenther Franke.” As yet, everything indicates that J. B. Neumann purchased “Die Nacht.” He then passed the painting to Heinrich Fromm, who was a co-partner of the Graphisches Kabinett until 1935, to settle a debt. A transfer of ownership from Fromm to the art dealership, which had meanwhile been renamed Graphisches Kabinett Günther Franke KG, or immediately to Günther Franke himself finally took place in 1939 at the latest, when Fromm had to emigrate. After the war, Fromm waived his claims for restitution against Franke. The Stiftung Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen purchased the painting from Günther Franke in 1963.
Credit line
Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Exhibitions
- Das XX. Jahrhundert. Ein Jahrhundert Kunst in Deutschland, 3.9.1999-8.1.2000, Neue Nationalglerie, Berlin
- Circus Beckmann. Werke aus dem Sprengel Museum Hannover, der Sammlung Ahlers und internationalen Sammlungen, 20.6.-19.9.1998, Sprengel Museum Hannover
- Unser 20. Jahrhundert - Meisterwerke von Picasso bis Beuys, 14.7.-28.10.2000, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
- Max Beckmann. Un peintre dans l'histoire, 9.9.2002-3.1.2003, Musée national d'art moderne, Paris
- Max Beckmann, 12.2.-3.5.2003, Tate Modern, London
- Max Beckmann, 24.6.-29.9.2003, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
- Masterpieces of Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen / Meisterwerke der Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, 17.10.2008-30.5.2009, Nagoya/Tokio/Kobe
- Die Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen zu Gast in Gottorf. Picasso, Klee, Beckmann, Matisse und weitere Künstler in Schloß Gottorf, 18.7.-24.10.2009, Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloß Gottorf, Schleswig
- Max Beckmann. Die Nacht, 5.9.-29.11.1997, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
- George Grosz. Berlin - New York, 5.5.-29.7.1995, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
- Silent Revolution - Eine neue Sammlungspräsentation, 26.2.-12.6.2010, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, Düsseldorf
- Alfred Flechtheim.com - Kunsthändler der Avantgarde, 8.10.2013-11.1.2014, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, K20 Grabbeplatz
- museum global. Mikrogeschichten einer ex-zentrischen Moderne/museum global. Microhistories of an Ex-centric Modernism, 9.11.2018-9.3.2019, K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Grabbeplatz
Service
If you have any questions or comments about works in the collection, please send us an e-mail to
service [at] kunstsammlung.de
For image requests and questions about image rights, please contact
vertrieb [at] kunstsammlung.de
Further literature on the works in the collection can be found in our special library for art of the 20th- and 21st-centuries: