Jahrmarkt (Annual Fair): Der Grosse Man (The Tall Man)

Max Beckmann

1921

Drypoint

Seattle Art Museum

While serving in the German medical corps in World War I, Beckmann suffered a nervous collapse. In the aftermath of the war he felt that modern society was walking on the edge of disaster. In his suite of prints titled Annual Fair Beckmann used carnival themes to satirize human folly and cruelty. He reveals the barely masked existential sadness of people cavorting on the merry-go-round. Contemplating life's constraints Beckmann once wrote: "Everywhere I find deep lines of beauty in the suffering of this terrible fate." Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection Object number 69.47.5