Max Liebermann: born July 20, 1847 , Berlin and died Feb. 8, 1935

Impressionism and the Strategies of the Avant-garde
Nov. 20 – Dec. 4
The evolution of the Impressionist movement in France and its reception in Europe
and the United States; art versus science
The Margins of Impressionism: On Gender and National Identity
Dec. 4
Questions of gender and representation in Impressionism; Impressionism outside of
France; Impressionism as the “other” in Imperial Germany (Max Liebermann as
“Jewish artist;” Corinth’s anxiety of influence)
Readings:
Frascina, pp. 219-289.
Deshmukh, Marion. “‘Politics Is Art’: The Cultural Politics of Max Liebermann in
Wilhelmine Germany.” In: Imagining Modern German Culture, pp. 165183.*
“Because We CanCanCan …”: The Moulin Rouge, the Demi-Monde, and the Spaces
of (Post-)Impressionism
Dec. 9
NO Readings
Max Liebermann: born July 20, 1847 , Berlin and died Feb. 8, 1935 , Berlin
• After studying under Steffeck (1866–68), attendance of
Weimarer Kunstschule (1868–72).
• summer of 1873 spent at Barbizon: studies work of JeanFrançois Millet, Corot, Constant Troyon, and Charles-François
Daubigny,
• Léon Bonnat: “Make the small sacrifice of having yourself
naturalized, and you will be one of us.”
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• 1878 return to Munich
• 1884 settles in Berlin
• leading the Berlin Secession from its foundation in 1898, until
1911, when his reluctance to accept the young Expressionists
led to crises, division and eventually his resignation.
• 1903: elected as President of the Deutscher Künstlerbund
• From 1920 to 1932: President of the Prussian Akademie der
Künste, the highest artistic institution of the Weimar Republic
Geese Pluckers ,1872
painterly quality of his technique: German terminology: malerisch
(painterly), das Malerische (the painterly)
criticism as Schmutzmaler (painter of dirt) and Hässlichkeitsapostel (apostle
of ugliness).
Franz von Defregger. Grace before Meal, 1875
• Anton von Werner, Ludwig Knaus, Franz von Defregger
• Leibl.
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Quote from Liebermann
“My painting, to be sure, is not yet out of the woods, for as the subject
is intellectually equal to zero and as everything is subordinated under
painting, I can therefore only trust my good conscience ... .”
(Quoted from Hans Ostwald, Das Liebermann-Buch, Berlin: Paul Franke
Verlag, (1930); pp.106-108: “Mein Bild ist allerdings noch nicht über den
Berg, denn da das Sujet gedanklich gleich null ist und alles der Malerei
untergeordnet, so kann ich mich nur auf mein gutes Gewissen verlassen ... ”)
Workers in a Field of Turnips, 1876
Courbet, Burial of Ornans
Camille Corot
Liebermann, School of Needlework, 1876/77
Der zwöfljährige Jesus im Tempel unter den Schriftgelehrten, 1879
• Tradition of “Jewish Jesus” _ see artists Maurycy Gottlieb and Mark
Antokolsky
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Fritz von Uhde
Liebermann, Eva, 1883
Liebermann, Old Men's Home in Amsterdam, 1880
Liebermann, Leisure Hour in an Orphanage, 1881/82
Liebermann, Restaurant Jacob in Nienstedten at the River Elbe (Hamburg)
Liebermann, Evening at the Ulhenhorster Fährhaus – Summer evening an
the Alster (Hamburg), 1910
Liebermann, Gartencafe am Wannsee
Liebermann, Strandszene in Noordwijk, 1908
Liebermann, Der Garten des Künstlers, 1918
Liebermann, Tiergarten, 1915
Liebermann, Die Gartenbank, 1817
Liebermann, Haus am Wannsee, 1926
Liebermann on Edgar Degas:
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It is the merit of the Impressionists -- Manet at the top -- that they, as
the first, approached things again without prejudice. Instead of the
rational mode of painting of the Academy with its recipe of local,
light and shadow tones, they tried to mix every tone on the palette as
they saw it, and to apply it onto the canvas. The school doctrine
taught: light is cold, shadow is warm; the Impressionists did not care a
straw for this rule and depicted light and shadows red, violet and
green, where and how they saw it. (Quoted from Max Liebermann,
Degas, Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1902; p.11)
Naturalist, Realist, or Impressionist?
Henri Fantin-Latour, “A Studio in the Natignolles Quarter, 1870
• Frédéric Bazille
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