Der Eiserne Steg - Kunstsammlung NRW / Online-Sammlung

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Foto: Walter Klein, Düsseldorf

Information

Artist

Max Beckmann

1884
Leipzig, Deutschland

1950
New York, USA

Work data

Material/Technique

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

Image: 120.5 × 84.5 cm
Frame: 142 × 106 × 6 cm

Signature

Bez. u.r.: "Beckmann F 22"

Accession Number

0212

Catalogue Raisonné

Göpel 215

Acquisition year

1978

Provenance

The whereabouts of the painting “Der Eiserne Steg” by Max Beckmann from 1922 were indicated by the artist himself on his list of paintings with the note “Neumann.” There is evidence that J. B. Neumann had owned the painting since 1925, the year in which the art dealer concluded a three-year exclusive contract with Beckmann guaranteeing him the right to sell it. The painting presumably belonged to his consignment from then on. The catalogue raisonné compiled by Erhard and Barbara Göpel lists the art dealer Alfred Flechtheim alongside J. B. Neumann as the provenance. Flechtheim represented Beckmann together with J. B. Neumann from 1928 to August 1930 on the basis of a contract concluded in October 1927. However, the painting can only be traced to J. B. Neumann; even at a Beckmann exhibition at the Flechtheim Gallery in Berlin in 1928, it is marked “I. B. Neumann.” The work was part of the first Beckmann exhibition in Paris at Galerie de la Renaissance. The exhibition took place from March to April 1931. It was then presented at Galerie Le Centaure in Brussels until the end of May 1931. The painting was presumably sent from Brussels to Galerie Bing in Paris for sale on consignment although there is no evidence of this. It was last mentioned in a letter from the art dealer Günther Franke to Beckmann dated June 22, 1931, in which he stated that he was unaware of the whereabouts of the work. From then, the work remained lost. Various sources name Heinrich Fromm as the sole owner of the painting at the time of its loss. It did not reappear on the Paris art market until the 1960s and was purchased by the art dealer Richard L. Feigen from the estate of Géo Charles. The Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen purchased the painting “Der Eiserne Steg” from the Serge Sarbarsky Gallery in New York in 1978.

Between 2009 and 2012, several freelance provenance researchers examined the origins (provenance) of all works in the collection of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen as part of a comprehensive research project funded by the German Lost Art Foundation. The focus was on all works created before 1945. For the painting “Der Eiserne Steg,” the ownership history during the National Socialist period (1933–1945) could not be fully clarified. For this reason, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen commissioned a more in-depth investigation into the history of this work in 2025.

If you have any questions or information regarding this work, please contact us:
Dr. Vivien Trommer
Head of Collection
trommer@kunstsammlung.de

Credit line

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

Exhibitions

Max Beckmann, 19.7.-22.9.1990, Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig/Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt
Max Beckmann, 9.2.-13.4.1996, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Roma
Max Beckmann, 6.3.-7.6.1997, Fundación Juan March, Madrid
Unser 20. Jahrhundert - Meisterwerke von Picasso bis Beuys, 14.7.-28.10.2000, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Der kühle Blick Realismus der zwanziger Jahre, 31.5.-1.9.2001, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, München
Max Beckmann. Un peintre dans l'histoire, 9.9.2002-3.1.2003, Musée national d'art moderne, Paris
Max Beckmann, 24.6.-29.9.2003, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Dialog der Meisterwerke. Hoher Besuch zum Jubiläum, 6.10.2015-16.1.2016, Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main