Reclining Nude
1929
Max Beckmann German, 1884–1950
Germany
Reclining Nude depicts Mathilde Q. Beckmann (known as Quappi), the artist’s second wife and a talented singer and violinist. During his early career spent in Germany, Max Beckmann criticized the French avant-garde; by the mid-1920s, however, he began to identify with artists working in Paris, and by 1929 he was living, painting, and spending the majority of his time in the city. This painting of Quappi, nude and in a traditional artistic posture of repose, evokes similar compositions by Beckmann’s contemporaries Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso.
Oil on canvas