A sculpture of a nude male figure holding a small female figure in his right hand.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The sculpture shows a seated man holding a small seated female figure in his right hand close to his chest. The man’s mouth is slightly open, his left arm hangs down by his side. A large snake wraps around the base of the sculpture, between the man’s legs, around and up his back with the head of the snake resting on the man’s right shoulder.

Gallery Text

Following his dismissal from his teaching position in Frankfurt by the National Socialists in 1933, Beckmann relocated to Berlin, where he hoped to continue his work in the anonymity of the capital. The following year, at the age of fifty, the renowned painter began to sculpt in clay and plaster — an extension of his interest in representing space and volume on a canvas’s two-dimensional surface. In a subtle reference to his own artistic process, Beckmann here combines the biblical creation story (Adam, himself formed from a lump of clay by his maker, clutches an embryonic Eve to his chest) with that of the fall of man, evoked by the snake that entwines the figure.

The last sculpture Beckmann made in Berlin before he immigrated to Amsterdam, and one of only eight in his oeuvre, Adam and Eve was never actually cast by the artist. Instead, it was posthumously produced in bronze in an edition of five by his estate. Its kneaded, uneven surface suggests that the formation of the human figure from clay is the ultimate creative act.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
BR76.5
People
Max Beckmann, German (Leipzig, Germany 1884 - 1950 New York, N.Y., USA)
Title
Adam and Eve
Other Titles
Original Language Title: Adam und Eva
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
1936 (cast c. 1959)
Culture
German
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/222435

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1500, Modern and Contemporary Art, Art in Germany Between the Wars
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
83.3 x 35 x 36 cm (32 13/16 x 13 3/4 x 14 3/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Beckmann estate; [Alpha Gallery, Boston], sold; to Mr. and Mrs. Irving Rabb (1969-1976), gift; to the Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1976.

Notes:
Date of sale per phone conversation with Alpha Gallery August 2010.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Irving Rabb
Accession Year
1976
Object Number
BR76.5
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Charles Werner Haxthausen, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, Abbeville Press (New York, NY, 1980), p. 69, repr. pp. 68-69
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 358, p. 302, repr.
  • Peter Nisbet and Emilie Norris, Busch-Reisinger Museum: History and Holdings, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1991), p. 73, ill.
  • Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 80

Exhibition History

  • Works from the 20th Century Collection of the Busch-Reisinger, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 06/15/1980 - 09/01/1980; Wildenstein Gallery, New York, New York, 09/23/1980 - 10/24/1980
  • Deutsche Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts aus dem Busch-Reisinger Museum, Stadtische Galerie im Stadelschen Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, 10/23/1982 - 01/16/1983; Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin 30, 02/10/1983 - 04/17/1983; Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, 05/08/1983 - 06/26/1983
  • Making Myth Modern: Primordial Themes in German 20th-Century Sculpture, Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 07/14/2007 - 12/30/2007
  • 32Q: 1500 Art in Germany Between the Wars (Expressionism-Interwar), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 03/13/2023 - 01/01/2050
  • 32Q: 1510 German Expressionist Sculpture, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 07/31/2018; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/05/2019 - 06/06/2022
  • Private Practice, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/27/2015 - 01/12/2016
  • Adam and Eve, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/01/2018 - 01/06/2019

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu