Ever since his stay on Fehmarn in 1908, Otto Mueller has repeatedly explored the motif of bathers by the water. Later summer trips also took him to the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. His paintings are less about the precise depiction of a specific place than about the idea of a simple, unpretentious life in harmony with nature. The bathers move naturally within their surroundings – amongst the beach, the water, the dunes and the vegetation – and come to symbolise freedom and a connection with nature.

Max Beckmann’s love of the sea was such that he longed to spend two months a year alone on the beach. He travelled to the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, to the Riviera, and finally, at the age of 66, gazed in fascination at the Pacific Ocean for the first time. This inspired numerous studies in which the sea was a recurring subject – yet in his graphic work, the subject appeared comparatively rarely.

This makes the drypoint 'Beach' from 1922 all the more interesting. Contrary to initial assumptions that it depicts a Mediterranean landscape, it can be assumed that it is, in fact, a North Sea beach. Probably created during a stay by the Beckmanns on the North Sea coast, the work conveys an immediate impression of the landscape that fascinated the artist throughout his life and which still attracts many tourists today.