Uncommon autograph signature of the important German painter, draftsman, printmaker and sculptor. Neatly penned in blue ink on an album sheet, with a bust portrait photograph affixed beneath and a collector's notation at the foot, recording that the signature was obtained at the City Art Museum [St. Louis, MO] on May 10, 1948. 4.5 x 5.5 inches [11.5 x 14 cm]. In fine condition.

Although Beckmann is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement. In the 1920s, he was associated with the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit), an outgrowth of Expressionism that opposed its introverted emotionalism. Following his crossing from the Netherlands, which began on 29 August 1947, and a brief stay in New York, Max and Mathilde Q. Beckmann took the train to St. Louis, Missouri, where they arrived on 18 September 1947. At Washington University Art School in St. Louis, the painter was temporarily given the position of the painter Philipp Guston, who was in Europe at the time. Beckmann was fascinated by the lushness of the gardens in St. Louis, the huge spaces of Forest Park and the mighty Mississippi. After his first impressions on the day of his arrival in St. Louis, he wrote: “It is possible that here it may be possible to live again.” (Journal, 18 September 1947) The present signature was obtained at the opening of the Beckmann retrospective, which was attended by 800 guests in May 1948 at the City Art Museum.