The Fire (Small Still Life)

Like his large triptych Actors, on view in a gallery on the opposite side of the Calderwood Courtyard, Beckmann’s The Fire takes as its subject Amsterdam during World War II. This small still life focuses on the more mundane challenges of the exile experience. By the winter of 1944/1945, Beckmann’s large studio, a former tobacco storeroom, could no longer be adequately heated for lack of coal. The inspiration for this painting was the new round oven used by the artist in a makeshift space. The temperature, as the artist notes in his diary, was still a brisk “8 degrees Celsius” (about 46ºF). Thanks to a strong network of supporters during his ten-year exile in Amsterdam (1937–47), Beckmann continued to sell his work abroad, as well as in Germany, despite the strict ban there on the sale of art deemed “degenerate.” This small painting, however, remained with the artist until his death in 1950.