Impressionism in Germany: Max Liebermann and his times

Is Impressionism French? The question is both aesthetic and political. Beyond a mere pictorial method, it comes down to determining whether this movement belongs to a national culture or to modern civilisation. In any case, it spread — Franco-French art history sometimes forgets this — and crossed borders; but then it absorbed references specific to each country. After studying its variations in Russia and the Netherlands [1], Daniel Zamani sets out to show its developments in Germany, centred on Max Liebermann, who was its herald. He played a major role in its diffusion, not only as a painter, but also as a collector — presenting French Impressionist works in his villa at Wannsee, near Berlin — and as the spearhead of the Berlin Secession, which became a showcase for the avant-garde.

1. Gotthardt Kuehl (1850-1915)
Orphans in Lübeck, 1884
Oil on canvas - 98 x 125 cm
Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Photo: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen

See the image in its page

German Impressionism developed between the 1880s and 1930s, that is, some twenty years after Monet. The artists did not merely copy their predecessors; they infused the movement with their own sensibility. The first room of the thematic route leaves the French visitor completely perplexed: no colourful landscapes, nor scenes of modern life, but young girls in orphanages, their silhouettes demure under white headpieces, both modest and neat, obediently bent over their sewing work (ill. 1). These genre scenes by Max Liebermann, Fritz von Uhde or Gotthardt Kuehl, executed with a naturalistic touch, evoke more the influence of Dutch painting than that of French Impressionism, and reveal a deliberate German taste for anecdote and narration. Far from the transformations of the modern city, market activity — stalls of crockery, animal sellers — also inspired the artists. And while Liebermann, like Monet, depicted the same motif several times (ill. 2), one chose the agitation of pigs, the…