The artist sketching amongst his family Max Liebermann

• This wonderful family portrait is one of Max Liebermann’s most personal works • It depicts his immediate family at their summer house on Lake Wannsee • Hanging above the fireplace is his own copy, painted in 1876, of Frans Hals’s ‘The Standard-Bearer of the St George’s Riflemen’ (1627), which bears witness to his deep admiration for Dutch painting Max Liebermann is regarded as one of the great portraitists of the early 20th century, commissioned by numerous famous figures to paint their portraits. Furthermore, up until his death in 1935, he painted some 70 self-portraits, the majority of which were created after 1902, by which time he was already firmly established and recognised as an artist. He depicted 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 his palette and brushes. Alongside this, however, the highly respected, business-savvy painter was just as much a devoted family man, who also repeatedly depicted his wife Martha, his daughter Käthe and his granddaughter Virgin. And so it comes as no surprise that, towards the end of 1925, at the age of 78, he began working on a very special subject. Neither representative nor self-portrait-like, 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 withdrew from the hustle and bustle of Berlin; visitors were rarely received here. The importance the painter attached to the subject of his family is evident from the preliminary drawings and oil sketches, in which he experimented with and refined the composition in various variations over a prolonged period. Furthermore, he chose the final large version of the subject (C. 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, on the right we see Liebermann’s wife Martha sitting in an armchair; his beloved granddaughter Virgin stands with her back to the viewer, writing or reading at the large table; on the left sits his daughter Käthe, somewhat obscured by Liebermann himself, who has moved to the left-hand edge of the scene, depicted in half-profile. He is wearing his white painter’s smock, sitting on the edge of the chair with his legs crossed, and is drawing intently in a sketchbook – he is, as it were, looking over his own shoulder whilst drawing. In earlier versions, such as the pencil drawing also on offer 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, whilst in other versions the housekeeper in a white apron is also present. Above the fireplace, we see what might be regarded as an ‘extended family member’: the large-format copy of Frans Hals’s ‘Flag-bearer of the St George’s Marksmen’, painted by Liebermann himself in 1876 (cf. WVZ Eberle 1876/10, lost), which was given this prominent position as soon as the summer house was occupied 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. | 1847 - Berlin - 1935 | Moderne Kunst | Gemälde | Nummer: 26x1633 | Provenance: Bert C. Behrend, Long Island/New York; Lempertz, Köln 6./7.12.1963, Los 436; Lempertz, Köln 3./4.12.1964, Los 402; Galerie Soraperra, Zürich; Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle, München; Galerie Norbert Nusser, München; Privatsammlung, Baden-Württemberg, 1972/73 bei Vorgenannter erworben.

Estimate:$168,408.75

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