Reclining Woman with Book and Irises

From 1929 to 1932 Max Beckmann kept a second studio and apartment in Paris, and this canvas left the Paris studio in 1931. That March he had his first solo show in the city, at the Galerie de la Renaissance, and one French critic called him something like a Germanic Picasso. Here a woman in a red and white corset and dark stockings stretches out on a yellow sofa, holding up a book that hides most of her face. A bunch of blue irises rests across her lap. The Belvedere notes that the clothing and pose have led some to see her as a prostitute, while others think she could be Beckmann's wife Mathilde, known as Quappi. Heavy black contours hold the picture together, with the three primaries, yellow, red and blue, set against a flat pink wall.