512 - Max Liebermann (1847 – Berlin – 1935)

Max Liebermann (1847 – Berlin – 1935) The Artist Sketching Amongst His Family Oil on canvas. (19)26. Approx. 57.5 x 72 cm. Signed and dated lower right. Handwritten numbering on the reverse of the stretcher, as well as a stamp from the art supply store Leopold Hess, Berlin. Eberle 1926/2. • This wonderful family portrait is one of Max Liebermann’s most personal works • It depicts his immediate family at their summer home on Lake Wannsee • Hanging above the fireplace is his own copy, painted in 1876, of “The Standard-Bearer of the St. George’s Riflemen” after Frans Hals (1627), which attests to his deep admiration for Dutch painting Max Liebermann is considered one of the great portraitists of the early 20th century, commissioned by numerous famous figures to paint their portraits. In addition, he painted some 70 self-portraits until his death in 1935, most of which were created after 1902, when he was already firmly established and recognized as an artist. He depicts himself proudly and elegantly dressed, often in staged scenes of him painting at his easel in his large, prestigious Berlin studio on Pariser Platz, with a palette and brushes. At the same time, however, the highly respected, business-savvy painter was just as much a devoted family man, repeatedly depicting his wife Martha, his daughter Käthe, and his granddaughter Maria. And so it comes as no surprise that, at the end of 1925, at the age of 78, he began working on a very special subject. Neither representative nor self-portraying, he devoted himself entirely to his family, depicting them in an intimate setting at his country house on the Wannsee. It was here that Liebermann retreated from bustling Berlin; here, he rarely received visitors. Just how important the subject of his family was to the painter can be seen in the preliminary drawings and oil sketches, in which he experimented with and refined the composition in various variations over an extended period of time. Furthermore, he chose the final large version of the motif (approx. 80 x 110 cm), painted between 1928 and 1930 and now considered lost, for a representative portrait photograph of himself, in which it can be seen on the easel. The basic composition remains the same in all versions; the viewer’s gaze falls upon the tastefully furnished living room of the Wannsee villa, where the family has made themselves comfortable in various armchairs and chairs in front of the fireplace and the large dark table. In our painting, we see Liebermann’s wife Martha sitting in an armchair on the right; his beloved granddaughter Maria stands with her back to the viewer, writing or reading at the large table; on the left sits his daughter Käthe, partially obscured by Liebermann himself, who has moved to the left edge of the scene, depicted in half-profile. He is wearing his white painter’s smock, sitting with his legs crossed on the edge of the chair, and drawing intently in a sketchbook—he is, so to speak, looking over his own shoulder as he draws. In earlier versions, such as the pencil drawing also offered here (Lot 513), the granddaughter is still standing to the right of her grandmother’s armchair, looking at an open book with her; the family’s dachshund is sleeping on Käthe’s lap, and to the left behind Liebermann, his son-in-law Kurt Riezler also appears; in other versions, the housekeeper in a white apron is also present. Almost like an extended “family member,” we see above the fireplace the large-format copy of Frans Hals’s “Flag Bearer of the St. George’s Marksmen,” painted by Liebermann himself in 1876 (see WVZ Eberle 1876/10, lost), which was given this prominent place as soon as the family moved into the summer house in 1910. Alongside Rembrandt, Frans Hals was one of Max Liebermann’s great role models, whom he studied extensively and copied himself during his numerous stays in the Netherlands. Bibliography: Weltkunst, Vol. XXXIII, No. 22, Munich 1963, ill. p. 31; Weltkunst, Vol. XLIII, No. 15, Munich 1973, ill. p. 1222; Teut, Anna, Zurück am Wannsee. Max Liebermann’s Summer House, Berlin 2003, color ill. p. 45. Exhibitions: Max Liebermann. Lovis Corinth, Kunstsalon Franke, Baden-Baden 1990, cat. no. 29 (on loan), color ill. p. 69, with label on the reverse; In Max Liebermann’s Garden, Hamburger Kunsthalle/Nationalgalerie, Berlin 2004, cat. no. 75, color ill. p. 149; German Impressionism, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, 2009/10, color ill. p. 50; Max Liebermann and Members of the Berlin Secession. Paintings and Sculptures from the Wolfgang Schuller Collection, Museum Schlösschen im Hofgarten, Wertheim 2010, color ill. p. 67. Provenance: Bert C. Behrend, Long Island, New York; Lempertz, Cologne, Dec. 6–7, 1963, Lot 436; Lempertz, Cologne, Dec. 3–4, 1964, Lot 402; Soraperra Gallery, Zurich; Rüdiger Schöttle Gallery, Munich; Norbert Nusser Gallery, Munich; Private collection, Baden-Württemberg, 1972–73 via the aforementioned