The Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main 1919
maxbeckmann
stadelmuseum
oil, canvas
17_20th-century
woman
abstract painting
animal
oil
handmade artwork painting
canvas
fluid art
acrylic on canvas
underpainting
expressionism
painting painterly
painting art
watercolour bleed
watercolour illustration
watercolor
building
Max Beckmann’s "The Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main" (1919) is a powerful and complex depiction of a Jewish synagogue in the artist’s hometown, Frankfurt am Main. Painted in a style characterized by expressionism, the work features bold colors, distorted forms, and a sense of unease. The synagogue is prominently featured, with its dome and facade rendered in stark, contrasting colors. The surrounding cityscape is depicted in a fragmented and disjointed manner, suggesting the anxieties and disruptions of the post-World War I era. This artwork is a testament to Beckmann’s personal experiences as a German Jewish artist navigating a turbulent period in history.
Comments
Its buildings lurching and swaying, the unsettled townscape seems almost to devour a small group of people. It is the painter himself, dressed in black, and his friends Ugi and Fridel Battenberg on their way home from a night out celebrating Carnival. They are passing the synagogue with its onion-shaped dome on Frankfurt’s Börneplatz square. The windows are brightly lit: morning prayers are in progress inside. The scene symbolizes the threatening circumstances of the period following World War I, which for Beckmann himself was one of existential crisis. The Synagogue in Frankfurt am Main was the first of a series of cityscapes he painted in Frankfurt between 1915 and 1933.
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