Currently not on view
Große Operation (The Large Operation),
1914, published 1919
Max Beckmann, 1884–1950; born Leipzig, Germany; died New York, NY
2005-53
As a volunteer medical orderly in East Prussia and Belgium in 1914–15, Beckmann was in direct contact with the war’s destruction and victims, both in the operating rooms of military hospitals and on the battlefield. Before being discharged after suffering a nervous breakdown, the artist made numerous drawings and several drypoints of his wartime experiences, including this one featuring doctors, nurses, orderlies, and the wounded as angular, distorted forms in a tightly compressed space—rendered with agitated, scratchy strokes that heighten the sense of controlled chaos and repressed trauma.
Information
Title
Große Operation (The Large Operation)
Dates
1914, published 1919
Maker
Medium
Drypoint
Dimensions
plate: 29.9 × 45 cm (11 3/4 × 17 11/16 in.)
sheet: 37 × 51.5 cm (14 9/16 × 20 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund
Object Number
2005-53
Place Made
Europe, Germany
Inscription
Numbered in graphite below plate, lower left: 26//60
Signed in graphite, lower right: Beckmann
Titled in graphite, lower left: Große Operation 1914
Marks/Labels/Seals
Blindstamp of Marées Gesellschaft, lower left
Reference Numbers
Hofmaier 81; Gallwitz 55
Materials
Techniques
Subject
- Curt Glaser, Max Beckmann (Munich: R. Piper, 1924), no. 71
- James Hofmaier, Max Beckmann: Catalogue Raisonné of His Prints (Bern: Galerie Kornfeld, 1990)., no. 81
- "Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2005," Record of the Princeton University Art Museum 65 (2006): p. 49-81., p. 60 (illus.)
- Klaus Gallwitz, Max Beckmann: die Druckgraphik, Radierungen, Lithographien, Holzschnitte (Karlsruhe: Badischer Kunstverein, 1962)., no. 55
