Madhouse (Irrenhaus)
Max Beckmann
German, 1884–1950

Details
Title
Madhouse (Irrenhaus)
Artist/Maker
Max Beckmann (German, 1884–1950)
Date
1918
Medium
Etching and drypoint on laid paper
Dimensions
9 3/4 × 11 7/8 inches
Credit
Purchase with funds from the Lawrence and Alfred Fox Foundation for the Ralph K. Uhry Collection
Accession #
72.28
On View
Currently not on view
The cramped composition, the figures’ jarringly different scales, and the range of clashing emotions—these unsettling features express the artist’s terrible experience in a mental institution. Max Beckmann, like many artists of his generation, was profoundly affected by World War I. He volunteered for service in the medical corps, but in 1915 he suffered a nervous breakdown due to the horrific misery and death he witnessed. Beckmann translated his intensely disturbing experiences, as well as his empathy for humanity’s suffering, into his art.
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