International studio (23.1904)

Max Liebermann

and became a painter of actualities. At present
he is, without doubt, one of the chief representa-
tives of the Impressionist painters en plein air.
Applying his talent to the study of Nature and all
its movements, without heeding the aesthetic
importance of scene or object, he endeavoured to
reproduce every-day scenes as they appealed to
him. Works such as The Net Menders, purchased
for the “ Kunsthalle ” in Hamburg, and the Woman
with the Goats, now in the Munich Pinakothek,
both of them displaying a marvellous talent for
observation and a rare sensitiveness for colour, alone
place Liebermann at the head of modern German
artists, and yet it has only been after a hard
struggle that he has come out victorious, becoming
one of the most influential amongst the Seces-
sionists. In his work to-day Liebermann is as full
of youth and energy as at the beginning of his
career, and may be said to have made for himself
a historic position.
In 1873 he visited Paris and Holland, the stay
in both countries proving significant for his art.
Revelling in the artistic atmosphere of Paris, where
he associated with Munkaczy, whose art attracted

him, he was induced to make a long stay in that
city, but it was really in Holland that he found the
most material for further development, discovering
in the Dutch people and their country endless
subjects for his brush; and so it came that he paid
regular visits to Holland, collecting an abundance
of impressions and ideas for work and study—in
fact even now Liebermann spends a short time
there every year, the Dutch landscape, with its
extending horizon, veiled in a soft, hazy atmo-
sphere, having for him an attractive, homely beauty
in harmony with the simplicity of the people.
A visit to Millet and his school of art in Barbizon
made a lasting impression on Liebermann, and he
learnt much from the French Impressionists, who
he felt endeavoured to represent with their art not
so much the particular objects, but their appear-
ance under certain conditions of light and air; and
also to reproduce the most fleeting movement in its
own particular charm. Millet’s influence is still
observable, although blended with the effect of
other teachings, in his work, which none the less
bears absolutely the stamp of individuality, com-
bining power of expression with the fundamental


“ON A SUMMER’S DAY
208

BY MAX LIEBERMANN