Max Beckmann

Alfred Flechtheim, Berlin (acquired from the artist)

Isaac Ber (J.B.) Neumann, New York (acquired from the above by 1936 and sold: Plaza Art Galleries, New York, May 8, 1940, lot 56)

Anna Bing Arnold, Los Angeles

Acquired from the above in 1958-59

Basel, Kunsthalle, Max Beckmann, 1930, no. 99

Zürich, Kunsthaus, Max Beckmann, 1930, no. 76

Paris, Galerie de la Renaissance, Max Beckmann, 1931, no. 36 (as dating from 1930)

Berlin, Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, Max Beckmann, 1932, no. 18

Adolph C. Glassgold, “M. Beckmann,” The Arts, New York, 1927, p. 241-247

J.B. Neumann, Art Lover, vol. 5, New York and Munich, 1931

Fritz Wichert, "Max Beckmann," Kunst und Künstler, Leipzig, 1931, illustrated p. 7

Anonymous, Der Kunstwanderer, 1932, p. 200

Max Beckmann, City Art Museum of St. Louis, 1948

Max Beckmann, “On My Painting,” Frank Perls Gallery, 1950

Andrew Cardiff Ritchie, German Art of the 20th Century, New York, 1957

Bulletin of the Art Division: Los Angeles County Museum, vol. 10, no. 4, 1958, p. 8

Lothar-Günther Buchheim, Max Beckmann, Feldling, 1959, illustrated

Studio International, March 1965, London, pp. 138-142

Erhard Göpel and Barbara Göpel, Max Beckmann, Katalogue der Gemälde, vol. I, Bern, 1976, no. 310, catalogued p. 224; vol. II, no. 310, illustrated pl. 109

Los Angeles County of Art Bulletin, vol. 26, 1980, no. 42, illustrated p. 45

Los Angeles County Museum of Art Bulletin: Three Decades of Collecting: Gifts of Anna Bing Arnold, 1980, no. 42, p. 45

Beckmann completed Stilleben mit Weingläsern und Katze during his first year in Paris.  He had visited the city several times during his career, but the five years he lived there (1929-1933) proved instrumental to his professional development.  The influence of the French avant-garde had a striking effect on Beckmann's work during this time, and we can see hints of the Parisian style in the present work.   The uncanny presence of the black cat, lying in the background, foreshadows the Surrealist images that Man Ray, Max Ernst and Wanda Wulz would complete in the 1930s.  More readily reflecting the picture's stylistic origins is the violet bottle, marked with the letters "RUSI" and abruptly turned over on the table.  The rendering of this particular object, and the genre of the work in general, shows the influences of Picasso and Braque, whose Synthetic Cubist still-lifes continued to inspire a generation of young artists in the years following the war.  

As we can see from the inscription in the lower left corner, Beckmann dedicated this work to his new wife, lieben, or 'dear,' Quappi.  It is interesting to consider that this dedication was written on top of the artist's faded or expunged signature, which he apparently deemed secondary to the reference to his wife. 

Beckmann was under contract with the Berlin-based dealers Alfred Flechtheim (1878-1937) and Isaac Ber Neumann (1887-1961) while he was living in Paris, and both men at certain points were in possession of this picture.  As tensions rose in Germany in the 1930s Neumann permanently relocated his gallery to the United States.  This picture, which Neumann brought with him, was eventually acquired by Anna Bing Arnold, the American philanthropist and patron of the arts, who gave it to the Los Angeles County Museum in the late 1950s.