from The artnewspaper
Berlin auction house finds rare early Beckmann
Only three still-lifes from 1914 are known to exist
BERLIN. Irene Lehr, director of Irene Lehr Kunstauktionen in Berlin and an expert in the art of the former German Democratic Republic, astonished the German market with a sensational discovery of a very rare early work by Max Beckmann. Still-Life with Gladiolus, 1914, was offered with an estimate of e40,000 ($59,000), but sold to a Berlin buyer on 27 October for a hammer price of e270,000 ($400,000)-the highest price for one of his paintings from this period.
In December 2006 Dr Lehr was offered a collection, including a series of minor paintings, but she says, one work caught her eye immediately. It was a still-life dated 1914, in an expressive style, but dirty and with an illegible signature.
After careful inspection of the signature, Dr Lehr believed that it said "Beckmann" but with a missing "k" in the middle of the name. This convinced Dr Lehr that the still-life could be a rare work by the German artist. She took the work to the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig, to be examined by principal conservator Rüdiger Beck, who says he also believed it was by Beckmann. Dr Lehr commissioned pigment and x-ray analyses from Munich's Doerner Institut, and sought the opinion of another Beckmann expert, Mayen Beckmann, the grand-daughter of the artist. The consensus was that the work was authentic.
According to the catalogue raisonné, Beckmann painted two still-lifes in 1914, one with a syringe and one with roses. Experts believe he forgot to mention the Still-Life with Gladiolus in his records, because during the period he left for the front in Eastern Prussia. The painting may be the last of the artist's early works. Partly as a result of his wartime experiences, he radically changed his style in 1915.
