The day before yesterday we had 30°C in Berlin, today 25°. It is sizzling hot, and the Sightseeing boats on the Spree are sparsely used.
Well: who will be in the mood to sit on the upper deck of a steamer for hours in these dog days of summer and let themselves be sprinkled by the stream of words of a tourist guide?
No, I know something much more refreshing.
In the Liebermann-Villa at the Wannsee there is a special exhibition till the 15th August: “Max Liebermann At the Sea”.
Since 1872 Liebermann visited each year the Dutch North Sea Coast at Scheveningen, Noordwijk, Katvijk and Zandvoort.
I think it interesting that he painted for 20 years the life of the common farmers, but never the sea.
At the end of the 1890s the influence of the French Impressionists becomes noticeable: now Liebermann sees the Dutch landscape in a different light, he paints more out of the moment and uses much brighter colours.
He possessed a wonderful collection of modern French painters, and advised the new director of the Berlin National Gallery Hugo von Tschudi at the acquisitions of paintings – 1896 they travelled together to Paris and they bought Manet’s “Winter Garden”.
“At the Dutch seaside the change from Realist to Germany’s most important Impressionist was fulfilled“ they say at the exhibition.
He painted the famous Beach scenes and discovered the open-air painting, fascinated by the play of light.
This picture of the Bathing Boys is seen as the first real beach painting by Max Liebermann. 1875 he had painted that motif before, but there as a Naturalist – after twenty years he discovers it anew, painted the sea and created from 1899 ten pictures of bathing boys.
But nevertheless I prefer pictures like these:
By the beginning of World War I in 1914 the visits in the Netherlands end.
Here is a link for a short tour through the exhibition (in German) bei German TV ZDF: http://www.zdf.de/ZDFmediathek/beitrag/video/1313490/Liebermann-Ausstellung-zum-Meer-eroeffnet
9 comments:
I'll say one thing for Leibermann; he can draw a good horse!
It makes me wonder what transpired in his life prior to returning to seascapes and painting them anew. Brings to mind an extended passage from TS Eliot's 'Four Quartets.'
'We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.'
A lovely post, Britta.
Herr Liebermann sure liked the seashore. I kind of like the Bathing Boys. It has movement.
So, in Berlin you have summer now? My colleague is right now at Nuremberg. There also it is summer right? And now we have the rainy season, the Monsoon, u know?
Thanks fr sharing that wonderful pictures and information of Max Liebermann..
Thanks so much for this interesting post about Max Liebermann. Reading this page, I found the stylistic changes in Liebermann's art very intriguing. From Realism to impressionism...quite a leap! The paintings you put up are all lovely. Of them, I especailly like the third last one!!
Wonderful paints, really a great painter!
Really a nice post Britta, never hear before about this painter. My favorite painters are of French Impressionism Period!
Bisou, Babi
Dear IG,
I put that painting of the horses deliberately into the post, knowing that a true Englishman will value a good horse!
Dear Suze,
that is a lovely quote from T.S.Eliot! Thank you for that (I saved it in my files, beautiful)
Dear Janet,
he got the movement and the light - before he painted the farmers etc in the studio.
Dear Tomz,
we have a wonderful summer now, in Berlin (30° C) and Nürnberg. Love it! To be able to wear dresses, and sandals - great!
Dear Sapphire,
thank you! He used a lot of techniques, and the pastel that you mentioned has even better colours than I was able to capture on the photograph (they had shady light and of course one is not allowed to use a flash)
Dear Babi,
I love the French Impressionists very much! And Liebermann did it too - they influenced them very much.
On my new post "Trees" you can see that Berlin sometimes is inspirational in quite a Parisian way!
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