The Beginning

1937–1947

Ten years of exile in Amsterdam

Beckmann lives in Amsterdam in self-imposed exile, making desperate but failed attempts to obtain a visa for the United States.

1944

The threat of conscription and a heart attack

In 1944 the Germans try to draft the sixty-year-old Beckmann into the army, although he has suffered a heart attack; he barely escapes mobilisation.

1947

Moving to the United States to teach in St. Louis

In 1947 Beckmann and his wife finally cross the ocean: at the invitation of Perry T. Rathbone, director of the Saint Louis Art Museum, he takes a teaching post at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts at Washington University, a vacancy left by Philip Guston, who had taken a leave.

1947–1949

Morton May: patron and student

In St. Louis Morton D. May, an avid amateur photographer and painter, becomes Beckmann's patron and student; the artist also helps him learn to appreciate Oceanian and African art.

1948

The first retrospective in the United States

The first Beckmann retrospective in the United States takes place in 1948 at the City Art Museum in St. Louis.

1948

“Letters to a Woman Painter”

Beckmann's “Letters to a Woman Painter” (1948) provides a statement of his approach to art.