Max Liebermann

Max Liebermann , 1847-1935, German genre painter and etcher. He went to Paris in 1873, where he was impressed by the Barbizon school of painters. In Holland he was influenced by Frans Hals and Jozef Israëls . His early works were realistic, but beginning about 1890 he developed a style closely related to impressionism . As leader of the Berlin secession group (1898-1910), he was instrumental in bringing French impressionism to Germany, where younger artists were already moving toward expressionism . Liebermann depicted the life of the working classes, landscapes, outdoor group studies, and painted more than 200 portraits. A secular Jew and one of his country's most honored artists, he was president of the Prussian Academy of Arts (1920-32) during the Weimar Republic. In his last year, however, he was forbidden to paint by the Nazis and his works were removed from museums and private collections. His painting The Ropewalk in Edam (1904) is in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Bibliography: See B. C. Gilbert, ed., Max Liebermann: From Realism to Impressionism (2005).

Liebermann, Max (1847–1935). German painter (of portraits, figure subjects, and landscapes), etcher, and lithographer, born in Berlin. From 1873 to 1878 he lived mainly in Paris, and together with Corinth and Slevogt he came to be considered one of the leading German representatives of Impressionism. In 1878 he moved to Munich and in 1884 to Berlin, where he became first president of the Sezession in 1899. However, he did not keep abreast of developments and a decade later he was regarded as a pillar of the traditionalism against which the German Expressionists were in revolt. He was one of the dominant figures in the German art world and in the later part of his career he accumulated many honours. When the Nazis came to power, however, he was required—as a Jew—to resign as president of the Prussian Academy and from his other prestigious positions. His widow committed suicide in 1943 rather than suffer at the hands of the Gestapo. There are some good examples of Liebermann's work in the Tate Gallery, London, including his last self-portrait (1934).