Black pen and ink drawing over pencil on cream-coloured, ribbed laid paper 24.7 x 17.5 cm, framed under glass. Signed Beckmann, inscribed and dated A. 44 in black ink in Sütterlin script lower left as well as on reverse titled AKT I Lispelt leise süssen Frieden (Chor) II. - The paper very weakly browned, the margins minimally cut and torn irregularly.
Certificate
The authenticity has been confirmed by Christian Lenz, Max Beckmann Archive Munich, Mayen Beckmann and Siegfried Gohr after presentation of the original, not by Stefan von Wiese.
Provenance
Private possession, Holland
Literature
See for comparison Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust. Der Tragödie zweiter Teil, with 143 pen drawings by Max Beckmann, Munich 1970 (facsimilized ill. in original size); Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust. Der Tragödie zweiter Teil. With 143 pen drawings by Max Beckmann, Leipzig 1982, p. 9, compare ill. p. 8; see for comparison Christian Lenz, Die Zeichnungen Max Beckmanns zum Faust, in: Goethe in der Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, Weltliteratur und Bilderwelt, Bonn 1982, p. 82 et seq., ill. 75; Rike Wankmüller/Erika Zeise, Max Beckmann. Illustrationen zu Faust II, Munich/Münster 1984, p. 8 f., compare ill. 2, 2a; Christian Lenz, "...so viel Wesentliches...", Max Beckmann als Zeichner, in: Ausst. Kat. Max Beckmann. Der Zeichner, Städt. Galerie Albstadt 2001, p. 18-25; Adolf Smitmans, Max Beckmann - Der Zeichner im Exil, in: ibid., p. 133-147