A still life of a fire burning in a stove.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The painting is done in dark shades of blue, black and brown. An off-white table with a dish and a long-feathered object is in the lower right. In the lower center flames rise from a stove, a black stove pipe with blue highlights is behind it rising to the top left. In the right corner a dark brown rectangle bordered in muted yellow. The background is reddish brown lightly overpainted with black strokes.

Gallery Text

Like his large triptych Actors, on view in a gallery on the opposite side of the Calderwood Courtyard, Beckmann’s The Fire takes as its subject Amsterdam during World War II. This small still life focuses on the more mundane challenges of the exile experience. By the winter of 1944/1945, Beckmann’s large studio, a former tobacco storeroom, could no longer be adequately heated for lack of coal. The inspiration for this painting was the new round oven used by the artist in a makeshift space. The temperature, as the artist notes in his diary, was still a brisk “8 degrees Celsius” (about 46ºF).

Thanks to a strong network of supporters during his ten-year exile in Amsterdam (1937–47), Beckmann continued to sell his work abroad, as well as in Germany, despite the strict ban there on the sale of art deemed “degenerate.” This small painting, however, remained with the artist until his death in 1950.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1976.96
People
Max Beckmann, German (Leipzig, Germany 1884 - 1950 New York, N.Y., USA)
Title
The Fire (Small Still Life)
Other Titles
Former Title: Still Life with Fire
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1945
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Germany
Culture
German
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/227871

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
60.3 x 40 cm (23 3/4 x 15 3/4 in.)
framed: 61.7 x 41.5 x 3.2 cm (24 5/16 x 16 5/16 x 1 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l.: Beckmann, A.

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Robert Heilbronner, 1953. [Buchholz Gallery, New York, New York], sold; to Alfred Jaretzki, Jr., New York, New York, 1955, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1976.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Alfred Jaretzki, Jr.
Accession Year
1976
Object Number
1976.96
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Exhibition History

  • 19th- and 20th-Century Paintings and Sculpture from the Museum's Collection, Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 06/11/1980 - 08/31/1980
  • German Painting 1760-1960: A New Installation, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 12/20/1983 - 02/19/1984
  • 32Q: 1500 Art in Germany Between the Wars (Expressionism-Interwar), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 08/10/2016; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/05/2019 - 06/03/2021

Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu