Le Mendiant

Max Beckmann

1921

Le Mendiant by Max Beckmann, 1921

Max Beckmann served in World War I and suffered a nervous breakdown, which turned his art toward darker, jagged themes like this 1921 piece, 'Der Bettler' (The Beggar). The hunched figure, drawn with frantic, scratchy lines, looks less like a person and more like a walking wound, embodying the desperation of post-war Germany. It’s a classic example of Expressionism, where raw emotional experience takes precedence over physical reality.

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