Perseus's Last Duty (1949): Art, History and Details

Perseus's Last Duty (1949) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Max Beckmann (German, 1884–1950).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This painting depicts Perseus, a celebrated warrior from Greek mythology whose name derives from the Greek word "to waste, ravage, sack, destroy." Perseus’s most famous feat was cutting off Medusa’s head. Yet, the mass slaughter depicted here is not found in the ancient myth, but instead suggests a nightmarish allegory filled with private, enigmatic symbols, perhaps reflecting Beckmann’s experience of barely surviving two world wars. Traumatized while serving as a medical orderly during WWI, Beckmann later became the target of Nazi persecution. In 1947 he immigrated to the United States. Created in the aftermath of the Holocaust and under the Cold War threat of nuclear annihilation, this painting suggests a bitter critique of mankind’s propensity for destruction. Presenting Perseus in female dress subverts the hypermasculine glamorization of military heroes common to national historical myths.

Object facts

• Title: Perseus's Last Duty
• Date: 1949
• Creator attribution: Max Beckmann (German, 1884–1950)
• Culture: Germany, 20th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 125 x 178.5 x 8.5 cm (49 3/16 x 70 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.); Unframed: 89.4 x 142 cm (35 3/16 x 55 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 2013.7

A detail from the museum

The reclining figure encircled by the griffin's tail at the far right may be the artist's self-portrait.

Collection credit

Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange

Further reading listed by the museum

• Max Beckmann: Exhibition of Paintings, 1925-1950 : January 9-27, 1962. New York, NY: Catherine Viviano Gallery, 1962.
• Göpel, Erhard, and Barbara Göpel. Max Beckmann: Katalog der Gemälde. Bern, Switzerland: Kornfeld & Cie, 1976.
• Schütt, Jutta, David Anfam, and Karoline Feulner. Beckmann & America. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2011.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.