GERMANY Celebrating Max Liebermann’s paintings

Review /Germany / Gallery

September - October 2022

GERMANY

GABRIELE SPILLER is a journalist with an MA in Art Education. She lives in Berlin and Ghajnsielem. Her book 50 Reasons to Love Gozo is an expression of her enthusiasm for Malta’s culture.

GABRIELE SPILLER

The millionaire who painted poor people

“My Liebermann. A Homage.” is a presentation on the 175th birthday of the painter who stands for German history like no other.

Why are Max Liebermann’s paintings still so popular? If you look at his 87-year life (1847 – 1935), you are impressed by the social currents and political changes he had to go through. He was born in Berlin as one of six children into a Jewish industrialist family. But young Max was not interested in prestigious studies like medicine or law.

He had to fight hard against his parents to get into the Art School. Soon the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 brought a break and Liebermann served as a medic. The painting “Gänserupferinnen” (Goose Pluckers) dates from the following year. With a bang, the young artist established his reputation as a painter of ugliness.

We see eight women completely absorbed in their work of plucking the feathers out of slaughtered geese. The sheer size of 118 x 172 metres makes it a statement. But what was revolutionary and scandalised by the press was the depiction of simple peasant women in a format that until then had been reserved for sublime religious depictions and glorified history painting. In this painting Liebermann deliberately places light accents on the geese and the women’s bonnets and blouses. One can recognize the influence of Rembrandt.

The experienced collector and railway magnate Strousberg acquires the “ugly” painting. Liebermann’s father in particular would never have expected this. The son’s further art studies now have his blessing.

The next pictures presented by the Alte Nationalgalerie are also realistic and unsentimental. One sees Amsterdam orphan girls and the infant school. In contrast to the cloying portraits of young girls by his contemporary Renoir, Liebermann shows a simple reality. In his work the women are individuals – not as “Impressionist pin-ups”, but drawn by their hard and monotonous work, dressed in coarse fabrics.

By 1890, Liebermann’s stays in the Netherlands, Italy and Munich were behind him. He had started a family and became president of the Berlin Secession. This artists’ association went into confrontation with the Academy School of Painting under Wilhelm II, the Kai-

Review /Germany / Gallery

September - October 2022

GERMANY

Continued

ser, who considered Liebermann an anarchist and a “gutter artist”.

In the summers, the family retreated to their villa on Lake Wannsee. “The Garden Bench” and other paintings reflect the harmonious atmosphere even during the First World War, the Revolution and the troubled Weimar Republic. Today, the grounds can be visited again and the Liebermann Villa houses exhibitions.

Liebermann’s self-portrait was painted in the “Golden Twenties”, a time of contradictions. The artist belonged to a privileged rich class while the majority suffered hardship. He followed the rise of the National Socialist movement closely and was aware that the political promises were pied piper slogans that ultimately brought Hitler to power. This is where Liebermann’s famous phrase comes in: “I can’t eat as much as I want to vomit.”

Liebermann died in Berlin in 1935. One is tempted to think that he fortunately did not have to live through the worst. His wife Martha took her own life in spring 1943 to avoid deportation to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. On the spot where the Palais Liebermann stood right next to the Brandenburg Gate there is a memorial stone for her.

The show in the Alte Nationalgalerie reveals how the painter not only advanced artistically, but also anticipated the changing role of women, situations of economic upheaval and political radicalism.

Max Liebermann, Haus am Wannsee, 1926, Öl auf Holz © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Jörg P. Anders

“My Liebermann. Eine Hommage.”, Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin. Until 11.11.2022. 13 videos with picture reviews are on the Youtube channel of the Alte Nationalgalerie: www.smb.museum/ang

Max Liebermann, Flachsscheuer in Laren, 1887, Öl auf Leinwand © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Andres Kilger

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