(in chronological order)
Albert Dürer: Self-portrait as an Ecce Homo, c.1500
Leonardo da Vinci: Self-portrait, c.1512
Rembrandt van Rijn: Self-portrait, 1659
Vincent van Gogh: Self-portrait with bandaged ear, 1889
Pablo Picasso: Self-portrait, 1901
Egon Schiele: Self-portrait, 1911
Max Beckmann: Self-portrait with glass of champagne, 1919
Frida Kahlo: The broken column (Self-portrait), 1944
Francis Bacon: Self-portrait, 1971
Jean-Michelle Basquiat: Self-portrait, 1982
7. MAX BECKMANN: “Self-portrait with a glass of champagne”, 1919 - oil on canvas, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (www.metmuseum.org) - © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Beckmann was one of the most important masters of the European painting in the early 20 th century. Although he is often considered “expressionist”, he never identified himself with that movement, although he shared with several expressionist artists the “honour” of being considered a “degenerated artist” by the Nazis. Beckmann was one of the pivotal figures of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), rejecting the rising abstraction, considering that the painting had to follow figurative way. Contrary to many other members of the vanguards, he was a studious and admirer of previous masters, from Rembrandt to Cezanne. The influence of the first of them is visible in his now admired self-portraits, as this one from the Metropolitan Museum.
Although the name of Max Beckmann could not be so famous for the great public as the other early 20 th century artists, he is without a doubt one of the great masters of the self-portrait of all time. The Art market, at least, has already recognized it: one of his self-portraits fetched more than $22 million in a Sotheby's auction 4 years ago.