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Sleeping Athlete (Schlafender Athlet)

European Art

This print is part of Max Beckmann’s portfolio Day and Dream, fifteen lithographs commissioned in early 1946, as a way to promote his art to an American audience. The contorted, exaggerated form of the sleeping male athlete—bulky, angular arms and legs, with scarcely any torso—is typical of German Expressionist figures.
PUBLISHER Curt Valentin
MEDIUM Lithograph on wove paper
  • Place Made: Germany
  • DATES 1946
    DIMENSIONS Image: 11 x 10 3/8 in. (27.9 x 26.4 cm) Sheet: 15 3/4 x 11 13/16 in. (40 x 30 cm)  (show scale)
    MARKINGS Verso bottom left stamped: "Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, N.Y." (Lugt 307a)
    SIGNATURE Signed, "Beckmann" lower right corner in pencil
    INSCRIPTIONS Lower left in graphite: "58/90"; lower center in graphite: "III."; lower right in graphite: "Beckmann" Verso bottom left in graphite: "49.206-3"
    COLLECTIONS European Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 49.206.3
    CREDIT LINE Gift of Curt Valentin
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Max Beckmann (Leipzig, Germany, 1884–1950, New York, New York). Sleeping Athlete (Schlafender Athlet), 1946. Lithograph on wove paper, Image: 11 x 10 3/8 in. (27.9 x 26.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Curt Valentin, 49.206.3. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 49.206.3_PS9.jpg)
    EDITION Edition: 58/90
    IMAGE overall, 49.206.3_PS9.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2016
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