Max Beckmann

Buchholz Gallery (Curt Valentin), New York (on consignment from the artist)

Morton D. May, Saint Louis (acquired from the above on 5 July 1950) 

Saint Louis Art Museum (acquired from the above on 21 December 1973)

Marlborough Fine Art, London (acquired from the above in March 1974) 

Saul P. Steinberg, New York (acquired from the above in July 1978)

Christie’s, New York, 18 May 1981, lot 65 (consigned by the above)

Private Collection (acquired from the above sale) 

Christie's, London, 3 April 1989, lot 39 (consigned by the above)

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, Madrid (acquired from the above sale)

Sotheby’s, London, 24 June 2002, lot 19 (consigned by the above)

Acquired from the above sale by the present owner

The Arts Club of Chicago, German Expressionists and Max Beckmann from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Morton D. May, 1951, no. 30 (titled Two Artists)

St. Louis, City Art Museum, Max Beckmann. Retrospective Exhibition, 1956 

Madison, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Union Gallery, German Expressionist Paintings from the Morton D. May Collection, 1959, no. 1, illustrated (titled Two Circus Artists)

Saint Louis University, Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Morton D. May, 1960, no. 78, illustrated (titled Two Circus Artists) 

Cleveland, Museum of Art, Paths of Abstract Art, 1960, no. 17, illustrated (titled Two Circus Artists) 

Denver Art Museum; Los Angeles, University of California, Art Galleries; San Diego, Fine Arts Gallery; San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum; The Art Institute of Chicago; Youngstown, Butler Institute of American Art; Akron Art Institute; Pittsburg, Carnegie Institute; Washington, D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art and Baltimore Museum of Art, German Expressionist Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Morton D. May, 1960-62, no. 83 (titled Two Circus Artists)

Jacksonville, Art Museum and Nashville, Fine Arts Gallery, German Expressionist Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Morton D. May, 1966, no. 24 

Portland Art Museum, German Expressionist Paintings from the Collection of Morton D. May, 1967, no. 38, p. 8 (titled Two Circus Artists)

Bielefeld, Kunsthalle; Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz Museum; Essen, Museum Folkwang and Vienna, Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Expressionisten Sammlung Morton D. May, 1968-69, no. 33 (Bielefeld)

St. Louis, Washington University Gallery of Art (on extended loan)

New York, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery and Saint Louis, City Art Museum, The Morton D. May Collection of 20th-Century German Masters, 1970, no. 47, p. 83, illustrated in colour (titled Riesenzirkus / Two Circus Artists)

London, Marlborough Fine Art, Max Beckmann, a small loan retrospective of paintings, centered around his visit to London in 1938, 1974, no. 36, p. 31, illustrated in colour (titled Artisten oder Schlangenbändigerin und Clown / Two circus artists or Snake charmer and clown)

St. Louis Art Museum and Kunsthaus Zürich, Max Beckmann and Paris: Matisse, Picasso, Braque, Léger, Rouault, 1998-99, no. 51, p. 106, illustrated in colour 

Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Beckmann: Exile Figures, 2018, no. 33, p. 118, illustrated in colour

The Artist's Handlist 1924, listed as St. Louis 1948 

Benno Reifenberg and Wilhelm Hausenstein, Max Beckmann, Munich, 1949, no. 635 (titled Riesenzirkus (Zwei Köpfe))

George McCue, “St. Louis Beckmanns,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, vol. 103, issue 117, January 1951, p. 5, illustrated

Erhard Göpel, Max Beckmann, Tagebücher 1940–1950, Munich, 1955, pp. 245 and 249 

Friedhelm W. Fischer, Max Beckmann, Symbol und Weltbild, Grundriss zu einer Deutung des Gesamtwerkes, Munich, 1972, no. XII, n.p., illustrated in colour; pp. 199-202 (titled Schlangenbändigerin und Clown)

“20th Century Works of Art Now on the Market,” The Burlington Magazine, November 1974, pl. V, n.p., illustrated (titled ‘Riesenzirkus (zwei Köpfe)’ oder 'Artisten' (Two circus artists))

Erhard Göpel and Barbara Göpel, eds., Max Beckmann. Katalog der Gemälde, vol. I, Bern, 1976, no. 762, p. 458; vol. II, pl. 279, illustrated 

Stephan Lackner, Max Beckmann, New York, 1977, no. 42, p. 155, illustrated in colour (titled Two Circus Artists)

Peter Vergo, The Thyssen-Bomemisza Collection: Twentieth-Century German Painting, London, 1992, no. 4, p. 43, illustrated in colour

Anabelle Kienle, Max Beckmann in Amerika. Studien zur internationalen Architektur- und Kunstgeschichte 57, Petersberg, 2008, no. 30, p. 85, illustrated in colour; pp. 58, 65, 84 and 87

Exh. Cat., Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Max Beckmann. Von Angesicht zu Angesicht, 2011, p. 75

Exh. Cat., Cambridge, Harvard Art Museums, Classic Modern: the Art Worlds of Joseph Pulitzer Jr., 2012, p. 195

Christian Lenz, “Max Beckmann: Selbstbildnis. Bronze,” in Hefte des Max Beckmann Archivs 16: Max Beckmann. Beiträge 2019, Munich, 2019, p. 107, fig. 8, illustrated

Christian Lenz, Max Beckmann, Münster, 2022, no. 184, p. 244, illustrated in colour

Anja Tiedemann, ed., Max Beckmann Catalogue Raisonné der Gemälde, no. 762, illustrated in colour, https://max-beckmann.org/gemaelde/762-artisten (accessed on 8 April 2026)