Max Beckmann is considered one of the best and most exciting modern painters. No other fine artist has depicted the great topics of the 20. century as vividly as he: the insanity of war, the social crisis and the breaches between the individual and mass society. Like many other artists of his generation, Beckmann is profoundly formed by his experience of the First World War. The sense of existential solitude and the loss of all supporting conventions turn him into a truth-seeking radical. He fathoms the depth of human emotions in a long chain of self-portraits: vanity, lust for life, contrition, fear of death. Beckmann's diaries and letters provide a rich treasure for the portrait to explore.