Kunstmuseum St Gallen, Switzerland.

A portrait of an artist as a middle-aged man: evidently deep, pensive and chain smoking. This piece also has a captivating palette and interesting contrasts.

In the centre panel, the Player King receives his blow; to the left, actors converse while hidden hands work beneath the stage.

This portrayal of the biblical story stands in marked contrast to those of Bruegel and Rembrandt. The characters wear modern dress, and the palette is rich and foreboding.

Versuchung was painted in Berlin prior to Beckmann’s exile. It forms the second of Beckmann’s nine triptych works. As one art commentator has described the work, ‘Full of foreboding about the bellicose Nazi politics, Beckmann retreated into a world of personal ideology. He explored the hidden forces deep in the human soul that cause the upheavals erupting at the surface of our everyday existence. His triptychs are certainly splendid storytelling, but they have the ambivalence of dreams.’  Read more »

Max Beckmann (1884–1950) was a German modernist painter who worked in the twentieth century. Much of his oeuvre was produced during Word War II, when he lived in Amsterdam. Prior to the war, Beckmann’s works were featured in an exhibition convened by Hitler to denounce modern art.