Gifts of love and friendship
Max Beckmann and Marie-Louise von Motesiczky
Past exhibition
8 October 2024 – 26 January 2025
Room 90a
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In 2021 the British Museum acquired a significant group of prints and drawings by Max Beckmann (1884–1950), one of the major German artists of the first half of the 20th century. He gave all of these works (apart from one woodcut) to Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (1906–96), a former pupil of his, who kept them in her possession until her death.
Beckmann first got to know Marie-Louise through her cultured and wealthy family in Vienna in 1920 and it was on a visit to them that he was introduced to her friend Mathilde von Kaulbach (1904‒1986) (known as 'Quappi'), who was to become his second wife.
The group of five drawings and three prints covers the artist's career from the 1920s to 1947, when he and Quappi left Europe permanently for America. They were displayed with other examples of Beckmann's graphic art from the Museum collection.
The purchase of this extraordinary group of works on paper was supported by the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust and the David and Liza Brown Bequest Fund through the Art Fund and the Oppenheimer Fund. In addition to this generous financial assistance, the Marie-Louise von Motesiczky Charitable Trust gave an additional drypoint print to ensure that the group remained together.
