About the Work
In the spring of 1950 Beckmann spent three days with his wife and dog Butshy with the Hope family to make sketches and photographs for a family portrait. “I just went to Blumington-Indiana to paint a couple with 6 children. – o my God – well it will turn out fine.”[1] Art historian Henry R. Hope (1905‒1989), head of the Department of Fine Arts at Indiana University in peaceful Bloomington, had offered Beckmann a teaching position in 1947, which he refused however to accept the position in Saint Louis.[2] They met for the first time in Bloomington in 1948, where the artist, as a member of the jury, judged student works at the university: “very boring everything […] – oh God – never again”.[3]
The Hope family portrait is one of only a few commissioned works by Beckmann.[4] Hope knew the artist’s work and had already bought “Dancer with Tambourine” in 1946 (G717) through his friend, the art dealer Curt Valentin. In particular, he appreciated the painter’s portraits such as “Portrait of Curt Valentin and Hanns Swarzenski”. Also with Valentin’s help, the artist was convinced to do the “Hope Group Picture”.
Beckmann made sketches and studies of almost all family members, including the youngest daughter Sarah Jane, whom he recorded in a large-format charcoal drawing.[5] The then five-year-old, energetic girl really seems to try to sit still on a chair for the study. Her cheeks are still reddened from maybe romping around, her gaze may seem shy, but she wants to study the person opposite her in great detail at the same time. As the most spirited member of the family, Beckmann lets the little girl, according to her wild nature, “fall out of the frame” in the painting. It is a restless pose, more like that found in his works from the 1920s.[6]
The recurring diary entry with the play on words “Hope, Hope, Hopeless” reflects his struggle with the group picture.[7] He arranges the family in a strikingly narrow portrait format. The parents, almost life-size, present themselves with their children. Henry Hope points to an African sculpture in his hand. As a fertility idol it alludes both to his passion as a collector and connoisseur of primitive figures as well as to the large family. The boarding school pupil Peter McClennen, the eldest son from mother Sarahanne’s (1913‒2002) first marriage, is behind his stepfather with only his head visible. His sister Helen stands in front of the mother while holding her hand. The other siblings are arranged in the foreground. James Christopher McClennen sits on a chair, whereas Sarah Jane Hope tumbles into the front of the picture. The family portrait is completed by the youngest sons, the twins Roy Ea and Ray William. The latter kneels on the floor and turns to the family dog, the Cocker Spaniel Red, whilst the former sits on a goat-like animal.
The Hopes were painted by Beckmann as isolated individuals in a confined space without any eye contact. Only Peter, who was not present during Beckmann’s visit, looks straight out of the painting. The family members seem almost unconnected. Apart from Helen, who touches her mother, there is no physical contact. This is by no means to be understood as an disharmonious togetherness, but rather through his composition of closely spaced parents and children, the artist seems to do justice to the patchwork family.
As the Hopes’ Christmas card arranged after the painting shows, they owned an old white carousel horse. Beckmann, however, deliberately does not set the twin Roy on a wooden horse, which is clearly a positive motif of his own childhood. Instead, the animal mutates into a dark billy goat with sparkling eyes. Perhaps it is an ironic allusion that shows Beckmann’s actual reluctance to deal with the commissioned work and the noisy crowd of children. According to the diary entries, the painter struggled a lot with the composition of eight people. Finally, he writes visibly relieved: “Believe Hope is finished. It would be too good to be true. But it’s really quite good now.”[8]
[1] Letters III, No. 985 of 31.3.1950.
[2] Henry Hope learned about Beckmann’s emigration wishes through Curt Valentin as well as his friends Bernhard and Cola Heiden (both taught at the Music Department in Bloomington), who had emigrated to America in 1935. Diaries, 29.4.1947.
[3] Diaries, 30.4.1948.
[4] Commissioned works of the American period are the portraits of John S. Newberry, 1947, G 756; Morton D. May, 1949, G 785, and Edith Rickey, 1949, G 788.
[5] Cf. to the sketches: Leipzig 1998, p. 260.
[6] Cf. Fastnacht, 1920, G 206.
[7] Diaries, 15. and 16.5.1950.
[8] Diaries, 17.5.1950.
