Vaudeville Act by Max Beckmann in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, March 2008

Vaudeville Act (Quappi)
1934 and 1937

Object Details

Artist: Max Beckmann (German, Leipzig 1884–1950 New York)

Date: 1934 and 1937

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 54 7/8 x 23 1/2 in. (139.4 x 59.7 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876-1967), 1967

Accession Number: 67.187.51


This painting represents three of Beckmann’s great loves: cabaret and vaudeville, jazz, and his wife, Quappi. A trained violinist, she never played the banjo as she does here. Had Beckmann not added her name to the title, it would be difficult to recognize her. He painted the first version of this work in Berlin in 1934 but revised it in Amsterdam in 1937.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/489624