The years after World War I proved dillusioning for Max Beckmann. He expressed his discontent in enigmatic paintings and prints, such as Before the Masked Ball. In 1922, he painted the composition and reprised it the following year in this mirror-image drypoint.
The scene shows three women and three men quietly, perhaps morosely, awaiting the arrival of a moment to become animated with gaiety--a moment which of course never comes. The setting is the Graz appartment of Minna-Beckmann Tube, the artist's then wife. All of the occupants are identifiable members of Beckman's circle. At left, holding the candle, is Minna's mother. Friends Greta Skalla (a school teacher wearing a dotted dress) and Dr. Erich Stichel (the man slung over the back of a chair) were friends of the Beckmanns.
The man wearing a dark mask and smoking a cigarette is Max himself. Minna is the one seated, holding a drum. At the far right, Minna and Max's 15-year-old son, Peter, wears a jester's collar and concentrates on reading a book. If the figures seem emotionally isolated despite their physical proximity, then Beckmann has done his job, for this sense of alienation is what he sought in much of his art. Max acted directly on such tensions and left Minna in 1925.
Text: Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), CC BY 4.0.
