£8m expected for anti-Nazi painting

A striking image of anti-fascist defiance by a renowned German expressionist is expected to fetch up to £8m at auction this week.

Max Beckmann's Matrose, or Sailor, unveiled for the first time in more than 50 years, features in Christie's German and Austrian Art sale in London on Thursday.

It was painted between 1936 and 1937 when Beckmann was forced to flee his homeland to live in exile in Holland.

As an avant-garde artist who was not approved by the state, he had been threatened by Adolf Hitler with sterilisation or prison.

In defiance, he finished the painting from the safety of Amsterdam by placing a copy of the Dutch radical socialist newspaper Het Volk, The People, into the sailor's hands.

A Christie's spokeswoman said: "Beckmann's work does command a lot at auction and it is a fantastic example of his work painted at a time when there was a lot going on in the world.

"It's a piece of history. It's a very political painting and gives an idea of how angry he was.

"Beckmann was one of the leading German expressionist painters. The main features are exaggeration and distortions of line and colour and was a deliberate abandonment of impressionism, of soft colours and lighting for harsh lines and colours for a much more emotional impact."

A private collection of 17 drawings by Gustav Klimt with an estimated value of £1m is also in the sale.