Perseus's Last Duty (1949)

Dated 1949, "Perseus's Last Duty" is an artwork by Max Beckmann. Historical background, 1949: The range of materials widened to include acrylic paint, screen printing, and mixed media. After 1945 the centre of Western art activity shifted to New York, where Abstract Expressionism was followed by Pop art, Minimalism, and Conceptual art. Abstract in brief: Movements of later decades, including Abstract Expressionism and geometric abstraction, carried non-representational ideas into new scales and materials. It emerged in the early twentieth century, when several artists in Europe and Russia developed non-representational painting during the 1910s. The catalogue places it in Abstract. The format is landscape.

"Perseus's Last Duty" is offered as a printable file (Digital JPEG + PDF files, 300 DPI) rather than a shipped item. You receive the files by email after payment and handle printing yourself, which gives you full control over paper, size, and finish. A landscape format suits wide, low wall spaces such as the stretch above a bed, mantel, or sideboard. Measuring the wall before choosing a size is the simplest way to avoid a print that feels too small or too large. Matte and fine-art papers reduce glare in bright rooms, while glossy papers give stronger contrast and deeper blacks. Choosing a standard frame size and printing to fit it often saves the cost of custom framing. Screens and printers render colour differently, so a small test print is a sensible way to check tones before committing to a large size.

German, 1884–1950

If you like the visual language of Max Beckmann, explore more works by the same artist in our collection.