3826 - Max Liebermann, ‘The Plague Corpses’

Max Liebermann, ‘The Plague Corpses’ two men carrying the bodies of the deceased to the pyre, created for ‘Bassompierre’ from Goethe’s ‘Conversations of German Emigrants’, published by Bruno Cassirer, catalogue raisonné Schiefler 213, lithograph on thin handmade paper, 1915, signed ‘MLiebermann’ in lead in the lower right-hand corner, Bruno Cassirer’s embossed stamp in the lower left-hand corner of the sheet, minimal signs of ageing, mounted on backing board, image dimensions approx. 11.5 x 16 cm, sheet dimensions approx. 34 x 26.5 cm. Artist information: German-Jewish painter, graphic artist and illustrator (1847 Berlin - 1935 Berlin), 1866-68: studied painting under Carl Constantin Heinrich Steffeck; 1868-72: studied at the Weimar Academy under Paul Thumann and Ferdinand Wilhelm Pauwels; 1871: travelled to Düsseldorf with Theodor Hagen, where he was influenced by Mihály Munkácsy; followed by a study trip to Amsterdam and Scheveningen; 1873-78: studio in Montmartre, Paris, and stays in Barbizon; 1875: trips to Zandvoort and Haarlem in the Netherlands; 1889: appointed to the jury of the Paris World’s Fair; in 1892, member of the artists’ group ‘Association of the XI’; in 1896, a stay in Paris and honoured as a Knight of the Legion of Honour; in 1897, awarded the title of professor; in 1898, admitted to the Academy of Arts; 1898: Founding member of the Berlin Secession; from 1909: country estate on the Wannsee; honorary member of the art academies of Munich, Weimar, Dresden, Vienna, Brussels, Milan and Stockholm; 1917: awarded the Order of the Red Eagle, 3rd Class, by Emperor Wilhelm II; 1920-33: President and subsequently Honorary President of the Academy of Arts; in 1927, awarded honorary citizenship of Berlin; honoured with the ‘Eagle Shield of the German Empire’ by Paul von Hindenburg; Source: Thieme-Becker, Vollmer, Dressler, Wikipedia and the internet.