Max Beckmann

Buchholz Gallery (Curt Valentin), New York (acquired from the artist on June 2, 1948)

Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig, Düsseldorf (acquired from the above on May 6, 1955)

Private Collection, Germany (acquired circa 1955-56)

Private Collection, Switzerland

Wolfgang Wittrock Kunsthandel, Düsseldorf (acquired from the above)

Acquired from the above on October 28, 1993

New York, Buchholz Gallery (Curt Valentin), Max Beckmann, Recent Work, 1949, no. 11, illustrated in the catalogue (titled Spring Landscape)

Beverly Hills, Frank Perls, Max Beckmann, 1950

Chicago, 1020 Art Center, Max Beckmann, 1955, no. 3 (titled Spring Landscape)

Wuppertal, Städtisches Museum, Max Beckmann, 1884-1950, 1956, no. 73, illustrated in the catalogue

Basel, Kunstmuseum, Max Beckmann - The Landscapes, 2011-12, no. 69, illustrated in color in the catalogue

The artist's handlist, St. Louis, 1948, no. 20

Benno Reifenberg & Wilhelm Hausenstein, Max Beckmann, Munich, 1949, no. 649

Emily Genauer, "Beckmann's harnessed power" in The Art Digest, vol. 24, 1949, no. 3, p. 13

D.S., "Reviews and Previews: Max Beckmann" in Art News, vol. 47, 1949, no. 7, p. 52

Gerhard Händler, Deutsche Maler der Gegenwart, Berlin, 1956, illustrated fig. 38

Lothar-Gunther Buchheim, Max Beckmann, Karlsruhe, 1959, no. 83, illustrated p. 185 (titled Altes Schwimmbecken)

Erhard Göpel & Barbara Göpel, Max Beckmann, Katalog der Gemälde, Bern, 1976, vol. I, no. 774, catalogued p. 467; vol. II, no. 774, illustrated pl. 285

Painted in 1948, Alter Swimmingpool dates from Beckmann’s illustrious St. Louis period. In August 1947 Beckmann left Holland with his wife Quappi and emigrated to the United States, where he spent the remainder of his life. Unhappy with their circumstances as refugees forced to flee Germany during the war, the couple set sail for the United States on August 29, 1947 in search of a new beginning. They arrived first in New York where they stayed for several days visiting friends who had also fled Germany during the war. On September 17, 1947 they traveled to St. Louis at the invitation of Perry T. Rathbone, the director of the St. Louis Art Museum and later the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Rathbone offered Beckmann a teaching position in the School of Fine Arts at Washington University in effort to fill a vacancy left by Philip Guston, who had taken a leave of absence. Upon his arrival, Beckmann wrote in his diary: "St. Louis. Finally a park. Finally trees, finally solid ground under my feet. A beautiful dream.''

Writing about Beckmann’s works created during his years in America, Peter Selz commented: "A man enormously attached to the physical aspects of life, Beckmann appreciated an atmosphere so much freer and more opulent than his restricted life in Amsterdam had been. He liked meeting people, going to parties, dressing up for masquerades, visiting cabarets, drinking champagne. …Perhaps he saw the physical aspects of life as a step to the metaphysical, perhaps he enjoyed them on their own account.  After all, as he mentioned very early in his career, quality in art ‘is the feeling for the peach-colored glimmer of the skin, for the gleam of a nail, for the artistic-sensuous… for the appeal of the material.’ While the style and meaning of his art had changed considerably …, the importance of the physicality of his work remained paramount" (P. Selz, "The Years in America" in Max Beckmann Retrospective (exhibition catalogue), The Saint Louis Art Museum, 1984, p. 161).