To Beauty

from the sources

• To Beauty is an oil-and-collage-on-canvas painting that Otto Dix executed in 1922. en.wikipedia.org

  “To Beauty is an oil-and-collage-on-canvas painting executed in 1922 by German painter Otto Dix.”

• The painting is signed and dated at the lower right. en.wikipedia.org

  “It is signed and dated at the lower right.”

• The painting is held at the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal. en.wikipedia.org

  “It is held at the Von der Heydt Museum, in Wuppertal.”

• The scene is set in a nightclub with two Ionic columns, and Dix appears himself in the center foreground. en.wikipedia.org

  “Dix presents a scene that takes place in a nightclub, with two Ionic columns, where he appears himself at the center foreground”

• Dix portrays himself as a businessman in a fashionable suit, looking at the viewer and holding a modern telephone. en.wikipedia.org

  “Dix presents himself dressed as a businessman, in a dapper suit of the latest fashion, while looking directly at the viewer, with an expressionless face, while clutching a modern-style telephone.”

• The drum of the African-American drummer is decorated with the image of a Native American chief in profile. en.wikipedia.org

  “His drum is decorated with the image of a Native American chief, in profile.”

• The title is meant to be ironic and may have been inspired by a Max Klinger engraving cycle. en.wikipedia.org

  “The title of the painting is meant to be ironic, in contrast with the reality it depicts, and it might have been inspired by a Max Klinger cycle of engravings”

• The museum's records trace the painting's acquisition by the Von der Heydt Museum on 28 June 1977, purchased from the dealer Dr. Ewald Rathke in Frankfurt. sammlung.von-der-heydt-museum.de

  “28.06.1977–heute: Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal; Ankauf mit Mitteln der Von der Heydt-Stiftung und einem Zuschuss des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen vom Kunsthandel Dr. Ewald Rathke, Frankfurt a. M. (Stand: 15.08.2023)”