Leda

Max Beckmann (1884-1950), St. Louis, MO, USA [1]

1948 - 1993
George W. Rickey (1907-2002) and Edith Rickey (1924-1995), Allentown, PA; Bloomington, IN; East Chatham, NY, purchased from the artist [2]

1993 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Mr. and Mrs. George Rickey [3]


Notes:
[1] Max Beckmann kept lists of most of his paintings which often included the dates that they were worked on and later notes on who purchased them. This painting is included in Beckmann's 1947 St. Louis list as number 23. Beckmann notes that he began the painting on November 28, 1947 and finished it on February 10, 1948. He later noted that it was purchased by Rickey of Altentown (sic) in 1948 [Göpel, Erhard and Barbara Göpel. "Max Beckmann: Katalog der Gemälde." Bern: Kornfeld & Cie., 1976, cat. no. 760].

[2] George Rickey, an artist himself, saw this painting in Beckmann's St. Louis studio in early 1948 and offered to buy it [information provided by Edith Rickey, December 29, 1993, from her 1984 essay titled "Remembering Max Beckmann," manuscript, SLAM document files]. Correspondence between Max Beckmann and George Rickey dating between April 1948 and March 1949 acknowledge payments to the artist for this painting [SLAM document files]. According to the 1976 catalogue raisonné, Beckmann's journal entries indicate that the painting was sold to Rickey on April 24, 1948 (see note [1]).

[3] Letter dated August 31, 1993 from George Rickey to the Museum indicating Mr. and Mrs. Rickey's intent to make a gift of the painting to the Museum [SLAM document files]. Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, November 4, 1993.