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Oct 3, 2005

Josef May

1926

Otto Dix

(German, 1891–1969)

Germany, 20th century

Oil, egg tempera, and other media on board

Framed: 105.1 x 88.9 x 6 cm (41 3/8 x 35 x 2 3/8 in.); Unframed: 84 x 68.8 cm (33 1/16 x 27 1/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1985.40

Location

225 German Expressionism & Surrealism

Description

A leader of the New Objectivity movement in Germany, Dix painted bitter critiques of modern capitalist society. To achieve a more incisive realism in his brutally honest portraits, he mixed egg tempera with other media. The sitter for this portrait, Josef May, was the Jewish manager of the Grünberg grain company in Arnsberg. When the Nazis seized power in 1933, May fled to Holland, where he died of a heart attack in 1938.

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Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed lower right: "OD. / 1926 [OD in monogram]; inscribed on back: "Joseph May aus Düsseldorf / gemalt von O. Dix 1926"

Provenance

Josef May, the sitter, [-1938], Holland, given to his brother-in-law, Hugo Simons.

Hugo Simons [1892-1958] Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth [1923-2005], Montreal, Quebec, Canada

-1985

Fischer Fine Arts, London, United Kingdom, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1985-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Olaf Peters. Otto Dix. Munich, Germany: Prestel, 2010. Reproduced: p. 219, 249

Exhibition history

The Year in Review for 1985. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 12-April 20, 1986).

Otto Dix - Zum 100. Geburtstag. Galerie der Stadt Stuttgart, Stuttgart 1, Germany (organizer) (September 4-November 3, 1991).

Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum, China (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009).

Otto Dix. Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (organizer) (September 20, 2010-January 2, 2011).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Josef May|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1985.40|author=Otto Dix|year=1926|access-date=02 June 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Josef May

Josef May

Otto Dix

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