Two Auto Officers

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Seeing a return to the literal Gesichter - ‘faces’ - of the portfolio is the double portrait ‘Two Auto Officers’. James Hofmaier, the authority on Beckmann’s graphic works, identif ies the figure on the right as Paul Cassirer, a Berlin art dealer and publisher who eagerly volunteered to fight at the declaration of war and received an Iron Cross for his efforts. Increasingly disillusioned with the war, Cassirer went on to become a pacifist. His relationship with Beckmann was established even before the war, however, when in 1909 he commissioned Beckman to illustrate Guthmann’s ‘Eurydikes Wiederkehr’, Beckmann’s first ever published illustrations, and the two remained close friends. Show more