Ruth

1919

The portrait (ref. nr. 621) is similar to the “Ruth I” made in 1918 and representing the artist’s wife. This dramatic art seems to us distinct from that of his Swedish cubist colleagues of the time and Beer’s contribution to emotions resides in an overwhelming sensation of boyish mystery tour. “Cubist” may not be adequate for this portrait, the treatment of the volumes is just one aspect, and we think here of Tamara de Lempicka mixing intimism with advertising elements. Not being able to classify Beer produced a scandal with the critics. As so often in History of Art, we have difficulties to grasp today what the fuss was all about. Many portraits from this epoch are remarkable in their forceful approach: Philippe de Rougemont, father to the abstract French painter Guy de Rougemont ; the portrait representing Mr Caldecott, nephew of Randolph Caldecott, the great British illustrator and friend of his father John Beer in London. But Swedish critics in 1919 did not recognize the importance of the Liljewalchs group exhibition in general and of Dick Beer’s work in particular. On the contrary, eight years after Picasso’s break-through on the continent, nobody in Sweden understood that it made perfectly sense to be naturalist and cubist at the same time (in other words: expressionist).